Oncolytic viruses and methods for treating neoplastic disorders

ABSTRACT

The disclosure provides mutant ribonucleotide reductase strains of poxviruses including for example vaccinia viruses. The disclosure also provides methods and for the use of these mutant ribonucleotide reductase strains of vaccinia viruses in oncolytic virotherapy. Also provided in the disclosure are vector constructs for generating mutant ribonucleotide reductase strains of poxviruses including for example vaccinia viruses. The disclosure also provides poxviruses comprising a functionally inactivated R2 gene.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation application of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 13/383,396 filed on Jan. 10, 2012, issued as U.S.Pat. No. 8,679,509 on Mar. 25, 2014, which application is a NationalStage application of PCT application No. PCT/CA2010/001065 that claimspriority of co-pending U.S. Provisional Patent Application No.61/224,694 filed Jul. 10, 2009, and Canadian Application (serial number2709292) filed Jul. 8, 2010, all of which are herein incorporated intheir entirety by reference.

FIELD

The disclosure pertains to oncolytic viruses, vector constructs andcompositions as well as methods for treating neoplastic disorders andmore specifically to poxviruses comprising a functionally inactivated R2gene and methods for treating cancers with increased levels of cellularR2.

BACKGROUND

Ribonucleotide reductases (RR) are evolutionarily conserved enzymes thatcatalyze the reduction of ribonucleotide diphosphates (rNDPs) todeoxyribonucleotide diphosphates (dNDPs), which is critical in theproduction and maintenance of dNTP pools. Orthopoxviruses encode genesfor both large (˜90 kDa) and small (˜40 kDa) RR subunits, and homodimersof large and small subunits interact to form a functional RR complex.

Studies of vaccinia RR proteins found that insertional inactivation ofI4L in strain WR did not cause observable defects in replication inculture and only mildly-attenuated these viruses in mouse models with anapproximate 10-fold increase in lethal dose 50 values for this ΔI4Lstrain compared to wild-type virus (6). Lee et al. (23) reported adeletion mutant of 180 bp in the NYCBH and Wyeth strains of vacciniaalthough the specific sites of this deletion within the F4L (or R2) geneare not reported. These authors report that when the growth of thismutant was assessed in BSC-40 cells at a multiplicity of infection (MOI)of 10, this deletion mutant replicated with similar kinetics and yieldsto the parental (wild-type) strain although the actual quantitative dataare not reported by the authors (23). These authors also report thatthis deletion mutant replicated to similar titers in mouse skin (23).

Vaccinia and other poxviruses have been used clinically. For examplevaccinia virus has been used as a vaccine for smallpox. In addition,vaccinia virus has been investigated as an oncolytic virus for cancertherapy.

SUMMARY

As disclosed herein, a series of vaccinia virus (VACV) strainscomprising functionally inactivated small RR subunit (F4, also referredto as R2), for example lacking the small RR subunit or comprising apoint mutation reducing and/or ablating RR activity, alone or incombination with other functional inactivations, were generated andisolated. Mutants comprising functionally inactivated R2 replicated morepoorly than wild-type virus in growth curve experiments but the degreeof the replication defects observed were dependent upon the cell linestested. R2 mutants also displayed severely reduced genome replicationabilities compared to wild-type virus. It is also demonstrated hereinthat vaccinia viruses comprising a functionally inactivated R2 gene,alone or in combination with functionally inactivated R1 and/or J2Rgenes, preferentially replicate and induce death in cancer cells havingincreased RR levels. Such viruses are useful for treating neoplasticdisorders, for example cancers, with increased RR levels.

Accordingly, in an aspect, the disclosure provides an isolated poxvirus,optionally a recombinant poxvirus, comprising a functionally inactivatedR2 gene. In an embodiment, the isolated or recombinant virus replicatesmore efficiently in cells with increased levels of RR, such asneoplastic disorder cells. In another embodiment, the isolated orrecombinant virus replicates more efficiently in neoplastic disordercells than in wild-type cells. In another embodiment, the isolated orrecombinant virus is not a NYCBH vaccinia virus or a Wyeth vaccinestrain comprising a deletion of 180 base pairs of R2 gene.

In an embodiment, the functionally inactivated R2 gene comprises adominant negative mutation, a point mutation or a deletion mutation,wherein the encoded protein of the deletion mutation lacks at least 2amino acids, or at least 7 amino acids, for example all or part of theR1 binding domain. In a further embodiment, the encoded protein lacks atleast 61 amino acids. In another embodiment, the protein encoded by thefunctionally inactive R2 gene is capable of interacting with cellular RRsubunits. In still another embodiment, the deleted amino acids comprisedeletion of at least one catalytically important residue and/or the R1binding site, for example as provided in FIG. 1B. In another embodiment,the functionally inactivated R2 comprises a Y300 mutation, such as aY300F mutation, and/or any mutation of one or more of the followingresidues which causes loss or reduction of catalytic activity: W34, E38,D70, E101, H104, Y108, F167, F171, G181, I193, D196, E197, H200, Y254,and E294. The foregoing mutations are provided in relation to thesequence of SEQ ID NO:1. A person skilled in the art using for examplesequence alignment software, would readily be able to identify thecorresponding positions in any other R2 polypeptide.

In an embodiment, the poxvirus is a genus or strain that nativelycomprises a R2 gene and is infectious for mammalian cells. In anotherembodiment, the poxvirus is infectious for human cells. In anotherembodiment, the poxvirus is infectious for human tumor cells.

In an embodiment, the poxvirus is selected from a genus in Table 3,optionally an Orthopoxvirus such as a vaccinia virus, a Leporipoxvirus,a Suipoxvirus, a Capripoxvirus, a Cervidpoxvirus, an Avipoxyiurs, aMolluscipoxvirus, a Parapoxvirus and a Yatapoxvirus. In anotherembodiment, the poxvirus is unclassified, for example a crocodilepoxvirus (CRV). In another embodiment, the poxvirus is vaccinia virus. Inyet another embodiment, the vaccinia virus is a vaccinia virus strainselected from a WR (Genbank accession: NC 006998), Tian Tian(AF095689.1), NYCBH, Wyeth, Copenhagen (M35027), Lister (AY678276), MVA(U94848), Lederle, Temple of Heaven, Tashkent, USSR, Evans, Praha, LIVP,Ikeda, IHD, Dls, LC16 (AY678275), EM-63, IC, Malbrán, DUKE (DQ439815),Acambis (AY313847), 3737 (DQ377945), CVA (AM501482) and AS each of theforegoing incorporated herein by reference.

In an embodiment, the functionally inactivated R2 gene of vaccinia virusencodes a protein that is deleted for at least 2 amino acid residues,optionally deleted for 2 amino acids of SEQ ID NO:1. In anotherembodiment, the deletion mutant lacks at least 7 amino acids, optionallythe RR1 binding domain. In a further embodiment, the deletion mutantlacks at least 310 amino acid residues, or optionally lacks amino acidresidues 1 to 310. In an embodiment, the nucleotides corresponding tonucleotides 33948-32987 of WR genome are deleted. In an embodiment, thepoxvirus comprises a mutation described in Tables 1 or 2.

In an embodiment, the isolated or recombinant virus further comprises afunctionally inactivated R1 gene, thymidine kinase gene and/or vacciniavirus growth factor gene.

In another aspect, the disclosure provides a composition comprising theisolated optionally recombinant virus disclosed herein and apharmaceutically acceptable diluent or carrier. In an embodiment, thecomposition further comprises hydroxyurea, gemcitabine and/or anucleoside analog.

In another aspect, the disclosure provides a method of inducing death ina neoplastic disorder cell, the method comprising contacting the cellwith an isolated or recombinant virus or composition of the disclosure.In an embodiment, the cell is in vivo.

In a further aspect, the disclosure provides a method of treating aneoplastic disorder comprising administering an effective amount of theisolated or recombinant virus or composition disclosed herein to asubject in need thereof. In an embodiment, the virus is an oncolyticvirus. In another embodiment, the neoplastic disorder is cancer. In yetanother embodiment, the cancer is selected from breast cancer, lungcancer, colorectal cancer, hepatic cancer such as hepatocellularcarcinoma, pancreatic cancer, skin cancer such as melanoma, esophagealcancer, leukemia, ovarian cancer, head and neck cancer, gliomas andgastric cancer. In an embodiment, the cancer is a carcinoma. In anotherembodiment, the cancer is an epitheliod carcinoma. In an embodiment, thecancer is a cancer type described in Table 4.

In another embodiment, the subject has been previously treated withhydroxyurea and/or gemcitabine. In an embodiment, the cancer cell orcancer is resistant to chemotherapy. In another embodiment the cancercell or cancer is resistant to hydroxyurea or gemcitabine.

In an embodiment, the cancer cell or cancer comprises increased levelsof ribonucleotide reductase compared to a normal cell of the same tissuetype. In another embodiment, the level of ribonucleotide reductase isassessed by determining the activity level of the ribonucleotidereductase, the protein level of the ribonucleotide reductase, the RNAlevel of the ribonucleotide reductase or the levels of dNTPs, wherein anincrease in the activity, protein, or RNA level of ribonucleotidereductase or an increase in the levels of dNTPS is indicative that thecancer cell or cancer has increased levels of ribonucleotide reductase.In still another embodiment, the level of ribonucleotide reductase is atleast 10% more compared to a normal cell of the same tissue type.

In an embodiment, the cancer cell or a sample of the subject's cancer isassessed for ribonucleotide reductase levels prior to administration ofthe isolated or recombinant virus or composition of the disclosure. Inanother embodiment, the subject is also administered hydroxyurea whereinthe hydroxyurea is administered prior to, contemporaneously with, orfollowing administration of the isolated or recombinant virus orcomposition of the disclosure.

In an embodiment, the subject is also administered a nucleoside analog,wherein the nucleoside analog is administered prior to,contemporaneously with, or following administration of the isolated orrecombinant virus and/or composition disclosed herein. In an embodiment,the subject is also administered gemcitabine wherein the gemcitabine isadministered prior to, contemporaneously with, or followingadministration of the isolated recombinant virus or compositiondisclosed herein. In an embodiment, the nucleoside analog is cidofovir(CDV) and/or any other acyclic nucleoside phosphonate compound and/oralkoxy ester derivative there of.

In another aspect, the disclosure provides use of an isolated and/orrecombinant virus or a composition disclosed herein to induce death in acancer cell or to treat cancer.

A further aspect includes an isolated poxvirus comprising a functionallyinactivated R2 gene or a composition comprising the isolated poxvirusfor use in inducing death in a neoplastic disorder cell and/or for usein treating a neoplastic disorder. In an embodiment, the neoplasticdisorder comprises an increased level of an RR subunit.

Also provided, in another aspect, is a vector construct for generating apoxvirus with a functionally inactivated R2 comprising:

-   -   a vector backbone;    -   a 5′ nucleic acid comprising a 5′ flanking sequence of a genomic        region of a gene to be replaced such as a R2 gene;    -   an exchange cassette downstream of the 5′ flanking sequence,        operably linked to a promoter, the exchange cassette optionally        comprising a NEO gene cassette (for example operably linked to a        p7.5 promoter), a gusA gene cassette (for example operably        linked to a modified H5 promoter) or a mutant gene of the gene        to be replaced such as a mutant R2 gene cassette; and    -   a 3′ nucleic acid comprising 3′ flanking sequence of the genomic        region of the gene to be replaced such as a R2 gene, downstream        of the exchange cassette nucleic acid.

In an embodiment, the gene to be replaced is the R2 gene. In anotherembodiment, the gene is a R1 gene. In an embodiment, where the gene tobe replaced is a R2 gene, the distance between the start of the 5′nucleic acid and the end of the 3′ nucleic acid is greater than or lessthan 180 bp.

In an embodiment, the vector backbone comprises pZIPPY-NEO/GUS (11). Inan embodiment, the vector construct is generated using one or moreprimers from Table 5.

Another aspect includes a method of making an isolated recombinantpoxvirus comprising a functionally inactivated R2 gene, comprisingconstructing a vector construct for generating a poxvirus withfunctionally inactivated R2 gene described herein; transfecting thevector construct into cells infected with a poxvirus, such as awild-type poxvirus infected cells, under conditions suitable forrecombination; and isolating a recombinant poxvirus functionallyinactivated for R2.

In a further aspect, the application provides an isolated cellcomprising an isolated and/or recombinant poxvirus comprising afunctionally inactivated R2 gene.

In a further aspect, the disclosure provides an antibody generated usingectromelia virus R2 antigen that detects ectromelia virus R2 antigen andvaccinia virus F4. In an embodiment, the antibody is monoclonal.

Other features and advantages of the present application will becomeapparent from the following detailed description. It should beunderstood, however, that the detailed description and the specificexamples while indicating preferred embodiments of the application aregiven by way of illustration only, since various changes andmodifications within the scope of the application will become apparentto those skilled in the art from this detailed description.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Embodiments of the disclosure will be described in relation to thedrawings in which:

FIG. 1: Strategy for the construction of recombinant vaccinia virusesand characterization of mutant strains. A) Vaccinia genome schematicillustrating the relative positions and strategies used fordeletion/insertion mutations in F4L, I4L, and J2R (see Materials andMethods for details). B) Alignment of human R2 (HR2; Genbank accession:NP_001025); mouse R2 (MR2 Genbank accession: NP_033130); human p53R2(Hp53R2; Genbank accession: BAD12267); mouse p53R2 (Mp53R2; Genbankaccession: Q6PEE3) and vaccinia R2 (VACVR2; Genbank accession: AAO89322)subunits each of the foregoing accession numbers incorporated herein byreference. Adapted from (5). (*) indicates catalytically-importantresidues and the boxed residues represent the R1 binding domain (5). Thealignment was performed with ClustalW software. C) Ethidiumbromide-stained agarose gels illustrating PCR analysis of mutantstrains. D) Western blot analysis of ribonucleotide reductase mutantstrains after infection in HeLa cells (MOI=10) for 8 h. Note that thetop band in the I4 blot appears due to cross-reactivity of the anti-I4antibody with HR1. Blotting for the constitutively-expressed cellular orviral proteins (Actin and I3, respectively) served as loading controls.Accession numbers described herein including the accession numberslisted above are herein incorporated by reference.

FIG. 2: ΔF4L strains exhibit a small plaque phenotype and impairedreplication in vitro. A) Representative plaques formed by each of theindicated strains 48 h post-infection on BSC-40 cells. B) Scatter plotsillustrating independent (n=20) as well as mean (horizontal bar) plaquearea measurements in arbitrary units (AU) for each of the indicatedstrains. Open circles indicate that the mean plaque area wasstatistically different (P<0.05) from wild-type virus based on a one-wayANOVA. C) and D) virus growth in HeLa cells infected with each of theindicated strains at a MOI of 0.03. Viruses were harvested at theindicated time points and tittered on BSC-40 cells. Note thatexperiments presented in (C) and (D) were done in parallel but arepresented in two graphs for clarity. Thus, the wild-type curve isidentical in both graphs. Symbols represent mean titers from threeindependent experiments and error bars represent SE. Some bars areapproximately the same size as the symbols.

FIG. 3: Growth and genome replication capacities of ΔF4L virus in BSC-40cells. A) Growth curve (MOI=2) of indicated viruses in BSC-40 cellsshowing mean (±SE) titers determined at the indicated time points. Notethat in some cases the error bars are the same size as the symbols. B)Parallel samples from A) were analyzed for genome replication byradioisotope-based slot-blots of DNA extracts from cells infected withthe indicated viruses in the presence or absence of 0.5 mM hydroxyurea(HU) in BSC-40 cells.

FIG. 4: Co-immunoprecipitation of vaccinia virus F4 with endogenouscellular ribonucleotide reductase (RR) proteins. A) HeLa cells wereinfected (MOI=10) for 6 h with wild-type vaccinia virus after whichharvested cells were lysed, and resulting protein extracts were subjectto immunoprecipitation using commercial antibodies recognizing theindicated cellular proteins or normal goat serum (control). B)Co-immunoprecipitation of F4 with HR1 in the presence or absence of I4.HeLa cells were infected with wild-type or ΔI4L VAVC strains as in (A)and subjected to immunoprecipitation with HR1 or control antibodies 8 hpost-transfection. These immunoprecipitates and the corresponding wholecell extracts (lysate) were subjected to SDS-PAGE, transferred to anitrocellulose membrane and western blotted (WB) with antibodiesrecognizing the indicated cellular or viral proteins.

FIG. 5: Recombinant poxvirus RR proteins interact with endogenous humanRR proteins. A) Co-immunoprecipitation of Flag-tagged viral/cellularlarge RR subunits with viral/cellular small RR subunits. HeLa cells wereinfected (MOI=10) for 8 h with the indicated vaccinia virus strains (seeMaterials and Methods for descriptions) after which lysates weresubjected to immunoprecipitation with an anti-Flag antibody. B)Co-immunoprecipitation of VACV, ectromelia (ECTV), myxoma (MYX) andShope fibroma (SFV) His₆-tagged R2 proteins with HR1. HeLa cells wereinfected with the indicated strains at a MOI of 10 for 8 h and thenprotein extracts were subjected to immunoprecipitation with anti-HR1antibodies or control serum (indicated by “*”). LC, light chain.Immunoprecipitates and the corresponding whole cell extracts were thenwestern blotted as described in the legend of FIG. 4.

FIG. 6: Human and viral RR proteins are localized to the cytoplasmduring infection with VACV. A) Localization of human RR subunits in theabsence or presence of infection. HeLa cells were mock-infected (mock)or infected with wild-type VACV (VAC) at an MOI of 5 for 10 h afterwhich coverslips were fixed and stained with antibodies againstendogenous human R1 (HR1), R2 (HR2), or p53R2. B) Localization ofrecombinant human and VACV RR subunits during infection. HeLa cells wereco-infected with the indicated strains (MOI of 5 for each virus) for 10h after which coverslips were fixed and stained with antibodiesrecognizing Flag or His₆ epitopes. Arrows indicate positions ofcytoplasmic viral DNA. DIC, differential interference contrast.

FIG. 7: Deletion of F4 C-terminus residues inhibits interaction with HR1and impairs virus growth. A) Co-immunoprecipitation of recombinant F4proteins with HR1. HeLa cells were infected with the indicated strainsat a MOI of 10 for 8 h and then protein extracts were subjected toimmunoprecipitation (IP) with anti-HR1 antibodies or control serum(indicated by “*”). Western blots (WB) of IP material and total lysatesare shown. LC, light chain. B) Plaque area analysis of RR mutantstrains. BSC-40 monolayers in 60-mm-diameter plates were infected with˜100 PFU of the indicated strains and stained 48 h post-infection withcrystal violet. The scatter plots illustrate independent (n=20) as wellas mean (horizontal bar) plaque area measurements in arbitrary units(AU) for each of the indicated strains. Open circles indicate that themean plaque area was statistically different (P<0.05) from wild-typevirus as determined by a one-way ANOVA.

FIG. 8: Correlation of cellular RR subunit expression and mutantvaccinia virus strain replication in two human pancreatic cancer celllines. A) Western blot analysis of viral and cellular RR subunitexpression of protein extracts made from mock-infected andwild-type-infected (MOI=5) PANC-1 and Capan-2 cells at the indicatedtimes post-infection. B) Mean virus yields (+SE) after 48 h or 72 h ofinfection (M01=0.03) of PANC-1 (P) or Capan-2 (C) cells with theindicated strains. C) Replotting of the data in B) to show the relativedifference in mean replication efficiencies between the two cell linesfor the indicated strains. Virus lacking both I4L and F4L genesreplicate 30-40 times better on PANC-1 cells which over-express cellularRR subunits compared to Capan-2 cells. Virus encoding the Y300Fsubstitution replicate ˜100-115 times better on PANC-1 cells compared toCapan-2 cells.

FIG. 9: Replication of VACV strains in human primary cells. Primaryhuman embryonic lung (HEL) cells were cultured for 96 h in DMEMcontaining either 10% (Serum) A) or 0.5% (No Serum) B) FBS prior toinfection (MOI=0.03) with the indicated VACV strains. At the indicatedtimes cells were harvested, freeze-thawed three times and tittered onBSC-40 cells. Error bars represent SD although some error bars areapproximately the size of the symbols. C) HEL cells were cultured as in(A) and (B) and then infected with wild-type VACV (MOI=5) ormock-infected. At the indicated times protein extracts were preparedfrom cell lysates. Equal amounts of protein were separated by SDS-PAGEfollowed by western blotting (WB) with antibodies directed against humanR1 human R1 (HR1), human R2 (HR2), human p53R2 (Hp53R2), VACV I4 or VACVF4. Blots for cellular actin served as loading controls.

FIG. 10: Differential requirement of VACV RR subunits for pathogenesis.(A) Analysis of animal body weight after infection with RR mutantstrains. Groups of 5 NMRI mice were inoculated by an intranasal routewith 40,000 PFU of the indicated VACV strains or were mock-infected withsterile buffer. Symbols represent mean body weight of each group of mice(or surviving members) over the indicated times post-infection. Thenumber of surviving mice in each treatment group is indicated inparentheses. Error bars represent SD. (B) Lung titers after infectionwith RR mutant strains. The scatter plot shows lung virus titers fromindividual mice with means (horizontal bars) for each group. Mice wereinfected in parallel with studies in (A) and were euthanized 5 dayspost-infection. Lung virus titers were determined as described inMaterials and Methods.

FIG. 11: The ΔF4L strain has reduced expression of the late VACV proteinB5. (A) BSC-40 cells were infected (at a MOI of 5) with wild-type orVACV strains with a deletion of F4L (ΔF4L) or a ΔF4L revertant strain inwhich the F4L gene was reintroduced into the F4L locus in a ΔF4Lbackground (ΔF4L^(REV)). (B) BSC-40 cells were infected as in (A) withwild-type virus or a VACV strain with a deletion of I4L (ΔI4L). Cellswere harvested at the indicated times post-infection and proteinextracts were prepared for western blotting. Antibodies against the VACVlate protein B5, the early viral proteins F4 and I4 or cellular actinwere used for blotting on parallel nitrocellulose membranes. Asterisksindicate mock-infected lysates collected after 24 h.

FIG. 12: Expression profile of cellular RR proteins after infection withVACV. HeLa cells were infected with wild-type, ΔF4L, or ΔF4L^(REV)(revertant) strains (MOI of 5) or were mock-infected (MI). Proteinextracts were prepared at the indicated times post-infection and equalamounts of protein were subjected to SDS-PAGE followed by westernblotting (WB) for human R1 (HR1), human R2 (HR2), or human p53R2(Hp53R2). Blots for cellular actin and VACV 13 protein served as loadingcontrols.

FIG. 13: Co-immunoprecipitation of His₆-tagged F4 with human R1 (HR1).HeLa cells were infected with the indicated strains (MOI of 10) for 8 hand then protein extracts were subjected to immunoprecipitation (IP)with anti-His₆ antibodies. Western blots (WB) of IP material and totallysates are shown. HC, heavy chain. Note that VACV F4 is ˜37 kDa whileHp53R2 (positive control for HR1 interaction) is ˜43 kDa.

FIG. 14: Growth properties of selected recombinant strains in BSC-40cells. Cells were infected at a MOI of 0.03, harvested at the indicatedtime points, freeze-thawed three times, and tittered on BSC-40 cells.Although the experiments in (A) and (B) were done in parallel, they areseparated for clarity purposes and thus the wild-type curve is the samein both graphs. The superscript labels above certain virus strains referto whether the I4L locus was inactivated using pDGIoxPKO^(INV) (INV)- orpDGIoxPKO^(DEL) (DEL)- or pZIPPY-NEO/GUS (pZippy)-based vectors. Asuperscript “REV” refers to a revertant of the ΔF4L strain. AllpDGloxPKO-based viruses went through a final, three-round plaquepurification procedure in Cre recombinase-expressing U20S cells. Symbolsrepresent mean titers determined in triplicate and error bars representSD. Some error bars are approximately the same size of the symbols.

Table 1: Major VACV strains used in this study.

Table 2: Susceptibility of VACV RR mutant strains to cidofovir (CDV),hydroxyurea (HU) and phosphonoacetic acid (PAA).

Table 3: Differential conservation of Chordopoxirinae RR genes.

Table 4: List of Cancer types that over-express RR proteins.

Table 5: List of sequences.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

i. Definitions

The term “functionally inactivated gene” refers to a gene comprising oneor more mutations (e.g. natural or engineered), such as a pointmutation, a dominant negative mutation and/or a deletion mutation e.g.producing a deletion mutant, wherein a biological function of theprotein encoded by the gene, and/or a biological function of any complexin which the protein participates, is inactivated, e.g. reduced by atleast 50%, at least 60%, at least 70%, at least 80%, at least 90%, atleast 95%, or more and/or ablated e.g. totally inhibited compared to awild type molecule. The biological function can be reduced by variousmechanisms, e.g. the coding sequence or gene can be deleted entirelyand/or partially, ablating or decreasing for example enzymatic and/orstructural functions of the encoded protein, the encoded protein can actas a dominant negative (such as a catalytic mutant) and form inactivecomplexes, and/or the encoded protein can be structurally and/orcatalytically inactive (e.g. when the gene encodes an enzyme). Also forexample, the promoter of a gene such as R2 can be deleted, inactivatingR2 function by inhibiting its expression. For example, “functionallyinactivated R2 gene” means a R2 coding sequence that encodes a proteinthat has decreased biological function, such as decreased catalyticactivity, or which decreases catalytic activity of an RR complex. The R2coding sequence can be mutated for example by deleting or mutatingsequence encoding one or more catalytically important residues, deletinga sequence encoding a R1 binding domain or other mutation that decreasesR2 protein and/or activity levels. A person skilled in the art, based onthe present disclosure would readily, by comparing to wild-type and/or amutant described herein, be able to determine if a particular mutationor deletion functionally inactivated R2.

The term “neoplastic disorder” as used herein refers to proliferativeand/or dysplastic disorders including for example cancers of any kindand origin as well as precursor stages thereof, including for example,cancers, neoplasia, precancer and/or tumor.

The term “cancer” as used herein refers to a cancer of any kind andorigin including tumor-forming cells, blood cancers and/or transformedcells.

The term “neoplastic disorder cell” refers to one or more cells derivedfrom or phenotypically similar to proliferative and/or dysplasticdisorder cells such as cancer cells of any kind and origin as well asprecursor stages thereof, including for example, neoplastic cells,precancer cells and/or tumor cells.

The term “cancer cell” includes cancer or tumor-forming cells,transformed cells or a cell that is susceptible to becoming a cancer ortumor-forming cell.

The term “a cell” includes a single cell as well as a plurality orpopulation of cells. Administering a composition to a cell includes bothin vitro and in vivo administrations.

The term “isolated poxvirus” as used herein includes but is not limitedto naturally occurring, selected, such as chemically selected, andrecombinant poxviruses that have been isolated, for example purified,for example by a method known to a person of skill in the art. Anisolated poxvirus comprising a functionally inactivated R2 includes forexample isolated poxviruses that have been inactivated for R2 usingrecombinant methods and/or naturally occurring variants and/or variantsisolated under selection pressure or conditions that result in genomemutations (e.g. chemically or irradiation induced mutations) wherein theR2 gene is functionally inactivated.

The term “recombinant poxvirus” refers to an engineered poxvirus, suchas a vaccinia virus engineered to comprise a deletion that inactivatesthe activity of a gene product, that is generated in vitro generatedusing recombinant DNA technology and/or a poxvirus derived from such arecombined poxvirus, (e.g. progeny virus).

The term “oncolytic” as used herein refers to a tumor selectivereplicating virus that induces cell death in the infected cell, and/ortissue. Although normal or non-tumor cells may be infected, tumor cellsare infected and lysed selectively in comparison to the normal ornon-tumor cells. For example, an isolated poxvirus is oncolytic if itinduces at least 5 fold, at least 6 fold, at least 10 fold, at least 15fold, or at least 20 fold more cell death in a population of neoplasticdisorder cells compared to control cells. Optionally the poxvirusoncolytic activity is preferentially oncolytic in neoplastic disordercells overexpressing an RR subunit, optionally R1 or R2.

The term “cell death” as used herein includes all forms of cell deathincluding for example cell lysis and/or apoptosis. Vaccinia virus forexample is known to induce cell death by cell lysis and/or apoptosis.Cell death of a poxvirus infected cell and/or neighbouring cell may alsorefer for example to elimination of the cell by host immune systemfunctions.

The term “level” as used herein refers to an absolute or relativequantity of a transcription product, e.g. polypeptide or mRNA, or anactivity of such a polypeptide, for example, a RR level, such as R1,refers to the level or RR that is detectable or measurable in a cell ortissue from a subject or a population of subjects, optionally from asubject or population of subjects who are known as having (e.g. testlevel) or not having (e.g. control level) a neoplastic disorder such asa cancer. The level can be a numerical value and/or range and can referto polypeptide levels, nucleic acid levels, or activity levels. Wherethe level is for a control sample, the control level can also refer to aRR level in non-neoplastic and/or non-cancerous cell or tissue, forexample as is found adjacent to tumor for example in a tumor biopsy(e.g. normal adjacent). Where the level is for a test sample, the testlevel refers to a RR level in a neoplastic and/or a cancerous cell ortissue. For example, when determining if a neoplastic disorder and/orcancer has increased RR levels, the level of RR determined using a testsample comprising a neoplastic disorder and/or cancer cell and/or tissue(e.g. test level) can be compared to an RR level in a control sample ora predetermined corresponding numerical value (e.g. control level).Where the control level is a numerical value or range, the numericalvalue or range is a value or range that corresponds to a level of the RRlevel or range in a control sample or control samples (e.g. can be athreshold or cutoff level or a control range) and can be predetermined.

The term “expression level” as used herein refers to the absolute orrelative amount of the transcription and/or translation product of agene described herein and includes RNA and polypeptide products. Aperson skilled in the art will be familiar with a number of methods thatcan be used to determine RNA transcription levels, such as qRT-PCRand/or polypeptide levels such as immunohistochemistry and/or westernblotting.

The term “increased level” or “elevated level” as used herein inreference to RR mRNA and/or protein expression levels in a cell refersto any detectable increase in the measurable expression level of a RRexpression product, as measured by the amount of messenger RNA (mRNA)transcript and/or the amount of polypeptide in a sample as compared withthe measurable expression level of a RR in a control or comparator cellof the same tissue type. For example a cancer cell can have an increasedlevel in comparison to a normal cell of the same tissue type.

The term “normal tissue” as used herein refers to non-neoplastic tissueand/or tissue derived from a subject that is free of cancer of theparticular tissue (e.g. when the tissue is pancreas “normal tissue” canbe derived from a subject that does not have pancreatic cancer). Theterm “normal cell of the same tissue type” as used herein refers to acell or cells derived from such normal tissue.

As used herein, to “inhibit” or “reduce” a function or activity, such asRR activity and/or binding, is any reduction in the function or activitywhen compared to otherwise same conditions except for a condition orparameter of interest, or alternatively, as compared to anothercondition.

The term “interacts” or “interacting”, for example with respect toprotein subunits that form a complex, refers to the physical direct orindirect binding of one subunit to one or more other subunits. Forexample, large and small RR subunits may interact to form a complex. Thebinding may be indirect (e.g. for example, via a binding partner).

The term “resistant cancer” or “chemotherapeutic resistant cancer”refers to a cancer that has decreased sensitivity to one or morechemotherapeutic drugs, for example by amplifying a gene that allows itto persist in the presence of the drug, for example by increasing RRexpression.

The term “sample” as used herein, for example for detecting levels of RRor dNTPS, refers to any fluid, cell or tissue sample from a subject thatis assayable for the molecule of interest for example that comprises acell or tissue for example of a neoplastic disorder that is beingtreated. For example, the sample can be a biopsy of the cancer, or ablood sample for blood disorders. For example, if polypeptide levels arebeing assayed, the sample comprises protein. If a nucleic acid moleculeis being assayed, the sample comprises nucleic acid. If catalyticactivity is being determined, the sample is suitably prepared to permitdetection of the catalytic activity being assayed as would be familiarto one skilled in the art.

The term “control sample” as used herein in the context of determiningRR levels, refers to a sample comprising a normal cell or tissuesuitable for determining a RR level, the cell or tissue obtained from asubject or a population of subjects (e.g. control subjects), optionallyfrom a subject or population of subjects who are known as not having aneoplastic disorder and/or cancer, or optionally obtained from the asubject with a neoplastic disorder and/or cancer wherein the controlsample comprises non-neoplastic and/or non-cancerous tissue (e.g. normaladjacent). For example, the control sample can be compared to a samplefrom the subject comprising tumor cells, wherein the control sample isthe same sample type as the sample comprising tumor cells (e.g. both thesample and the control are serum samples), or both the sample andcontrol sample derive from the same tissue (e.g. T cell leukemiacompared with T cell sample (control)). The control sample can alsocomprise normal adjacent tissue for example, comparing a tumor sample toadjacent normal control tissue.

As used herein “vector backbone” refers to a nucleic acid molecule thatis used as a vehicle to deliver one or more nucleic acid molecules, suchas a mutant R2 gene, into a cell, e.g. to allow recombination. Thevector backbone can refer optionally to the plasmid construct that isused to generate virus or to a virus genome (e.g. the non-recombinedvirus genome). Optionally, the vector backbone is constructed to permitexpression of one or more transgenes (e.g an expression cassette) andthe construct (e.g. vector backbone and transgene) can be referred to asan expression vector. A vector backbone into which has been inserted oneor more nucleic acids to be transferred to a cell, is referred to as avector construct.

The term “isolated vector construct”, as used herein refers to a nucleicacid substantially free of cellular material or culture medium whenproduced for example by recombinant DNA techniques.

The term “detection cassette” is used to refer to a polynucleotide thatdirects expression of a molecule that acts as a cell marker and thatoptionally provides for a mode of isolating cells expressing saidmarker. The molecule is optionally used to select infected ortransfected cells or to determine the efficiency of cell transduction ortransfection. Molecules that are useful as cell markers or detectionagents comprise for example, EGFP or derivatives thereof such as YFP andRFP, HSA, GFP or derivatives thereof such as YFP and RFP, enhanced GFP,mCherry, β-glucuronidase, β-galactosidase, firefly or renilla luciferaseETC. One skilled in the art will recognize that other fluorescent andnon-fluorescent molecules can similarly be used.

The term “antibody” as used herein is intended to include monoclonalantibodies, polyclonal antibodies, and chimeric antibodies. The antibodymay be from recombinant sources and/or produced in transgenic animals.The term “antibody fragment” as used herein is intended to include Fab,Fab′, F(ab′)2, scFv, dsFv, ds-scFv, dimers, minibodies, diabodies, andmultimers thereof and biospecific antibody fragments. Antibodies can befragmented using conventional techniques. For example, F(ab′)2 fragmentscan be generated by treating the antibody with pepsin. The resultingF(ab′)2 fragment can be treated to reduce disulfide bridges to produceFab′ fragments. Papain digestion can lead to the formation of Fabfragments. Fab, Fab′ and F(ab′)2, scFv, dsFv, ds-scFv, dimers,minibodies, diabodies, biospecific antibody fragments and otherfragments can also be synthesized by recombinant techniques. Methods formaking antibodies are well known in the art.

The term “nucleic acid” includes DNA and RNA and can be either doublestranded or single stranded.

The term “isolated nucleic acid” as used herein refers to a nucleic acidsubstantially free of cellular material or culture medium when producedby recombinant DNA techniques, or chemical precursors, or otherchemicals when chemically synthesized. An “isolated nucleic acid” isalso substantially free of sequences which naturally flank the nucleicacid (i.e. sequences located at the 5′ and 3′ ends of the nucleic acid)from which the nucleic acid is derived. The term “nucleic acid” isintended to include DNA and RNA and can be either double stranded orsingle stranded. The nucleic acid sequences contemplated by the presentapplication include isolated nucleotide sequences which hybridize to aRNA product of a biomarker, nucleotide sequences which are complementaryto a RNA product of a biomarker of the present application, nucleotidesequences which act as probes, or nucleotide sequences which are sets ofspecific primers

The term “primer” as used herein refers to a nucleic acid sequence,whether occurring naturally as in a purified restriction digest orproduced synthetically, which is capable of acting as a point ofsynthesis of when placed under conditions in which synthesis of a primerextension product, which is complementary to a nucleic acid strand isinduced (e.g. in the presence of nucleotides and an inducing agent suchas DNA polymerase and at a suitable temperature and pH). The primer mustbe sufficiently long to prime the synthesis of the desired extensionproduct in the presence of the inducing agent. The exact length of theprimer will depend upon factors, including temperature, sequences of theprimer and the methods used. A primer typically contains 15-25 or morenucleotides, although it can contain less. The factors involved indetermining the appropriate length of primer are readily known to one ofordinary skill in the art.

The terms “R1” and “R2” as used herein refer to the large and smallsubunits of a ribonucleotide reductase complex, respectively. “R1” and“R2” may refer to the ribonucleotide reductase subunits of, for example:mammals, including, but not limited to humans, and viruses, including,but not limited to poxviruses, such as vaccinia viruses. Homodimers oflarge and small subunits interact to form a functional ribonucleasereductase complex. Alternatives names for R1 include, but are notlimited to, “I4L”, “I4” “large RR subunit”, “large subunit”, “M1”, and“RRM1”. Alternative names for R2 include, but are not limited to, “F4L”,“F4” “small RR subunit”, “small subunit”, “RRM2” and, “M2”. Furtherspecies can be referred to specifically, for example, human R1 isdenoted as HR1 and human R2 is denoted as HR2. Also for example viral R1protein is also denoted as I4 and viral R1 gene is denoted as “I4L” orwhen referring to the WR strain, VACV-WR-073 Similarly, the viral R2protein is denoted “F4” and the gene is denoted “F4L” or “VACV-WR-043”when referring to the WR strain specifically. A person skilled in theart would be familiar with the various nomenclatures used for vacciniagenes. For example, the “old”, but more common, nomenclature forvaccinia genes uses letter-based designations (i.e. F4L and I4L) a newernomenclature based on the open reading frame (ORF) number (from the leftside of the genome to the right side) uses numbers to indicate the ORFnumber from the left side (e.g. I4L is the 73^(rd) ORF from the start ofthe genome).

The term “p53R2” as used herein refers to an alternative R2 subunitencoded for in mammalian cells (e.g. mouse p53R2; Genbank accession:□6PEE3.1). The term “Hp53R2” as used herein refers to the human form ofp53R2 (Genbank accession: BAD12267.1).

The term “cellular RR” as used herein refers to the one or more subunitsof a non-viral RR protein, for example a human RR subunit. It isdisclosed herein for example that poxvirus R1 can interact (e.g.functionally bind) cellular (e.g. mammalian) R2 to form a functionalhybrid complexes.

The term “sequence identity” as used herein refers to the percentage ofsequence identity between two polypeptide sequences or two nucleic acidsequences. To determine the percent identity of two amino acid sequencesor of two nucleic acid sequences, the sequences are aligned for optimalcomparison purposes (e.g., gaps can be introduced in the sequence of afirst amino acid or nucleic acid sequence for optimal alignment with asecond amino acid or nucleic acid sequence). The amino acid residues ornucleotides at corresponding amino acid positions or nucleotidepositions are then compared. When a position in the first sequence isoccupied by the same amino acid residue or nucleotide as thecorresponding position in the second sequence, then the molecules areidentical at that position. The percent identity between the twosequences is a function of the number of identical positions shared bythe sequences (i.e., % identity=number of identical overlappingpositions/total number of positions.times.100%). In one embodiment, thetwo sequences are the same length. The determination of percent identitybetween two sequences can also be accomplished using a mathematicalalgorithm. A preferred, non-limiting example of a mathematical algorithmutilized for the comparison of two sequences is the algorithm of Karlinand Altschul, 1990, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 87:2264-2268, modifiedas in Karlin and Altschul, 1993, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.90:5873-5877. Such an algorithm is incorporated into the NBLAST andXBLAST programs of Altschul et al., 1990, J. Mol. Biol. 215:403. BLASTnucleotide searches can be performed with the NBLAST nucleotide programparameters set, e.g., for score=100, wordlength=12 to obtain nucleotidesequences homologous to a nucleic acid molecules of the presentapplication. BLAST protein searches can be performed with the XBLASTprogram parameters set, e.g., to score-50, wordlength=3 to obtain aminoacid sequences homologous to a protein molecule of the presentapplication. To obtain gapped alignments for comparison purposes, GappedBLAST can be utilized as described in Altschul et al., 1997, NucleicAcids Res. 25:3389-3402. Alternatively, PSI-BLAST can be used to performan iterated search which detects distant relationships between molecules(Id.). When utilizing BLAST, Gapped BLAST, and PSI-Blast programs, thedefault parameters of the respective programs (e.g., of XBLAST andNBLAST) can be used (see, e.g., the NCBI website). The percent identitybetween two sequences can be determined using techniques similar tothose described above, with or without allowing gaps. In calculatingpercent identity, typically only exact matches are counted.

A “conservative amino acid substitution” as used herein, is one in whichone amino acid residue is replaced with another amino acid residuewithout abolishing the protein's desired properties. Conservative aminoacid substitutions are known in the art. For example, conservativesubstitutions include substituting an amino acid in one of the followinggroups for another amino acid in the same group: alanine (A), serine(S), and threonine (T); aspartic acid (D) and glutamic acid (E);asparagine (N) and glutamine (Q); arginine (R) and lysine (L);isoleucine (I), leucine (L), methionine (M), valine (V); andphenylalanine (F), tyrosine (Y), and tryptophan (W).

The term “hybridize” refers to the sequence specific non-covalentbinding interaction with a complementary nucleic acid.

By “at least moderately stringent hybridization conditions” it is meantthat conditions are selected which promote selective hybridizationbetween two complementary nucleic acid molecules in solution.Hybridization may occur to all or a portion of a nucleic acid sequencemolecule. The hybridizing portion is typically at least 15 (e.g. 20, 25,30, 40 or 50) nucleotides in length. Those skilled in the art willrecognize that the stability of a nucleic acid duplex, or hybrids, isdetermined by the Tm, which in sodium containing buffers is a functionof the sodium ion concentration and temperature (T_(m)=81.5° C.−16.6(Log 10 [Na+])+0.41 (% (G+C)−600/l), or similar equation). Accordingly,the parameters in the wash conditions that determine hybrid stabilityare sodium ion concentration and temperature. In order to identifymolecules that are similar, but not identical, to a known nucleic acidmolecule a 1% mismatch may be assumed to result in about a 1° C.decrease in Tm, for example if nucleic acid molecules are sought thathave a >95% identity, the final wash temperature will be reduced byabout 5° C. Based on these considerations those skilled in the art willbe able to readily select appropriate hybridization conditions. Inpreferred embodiments, stringent hybridization conditions are selected.By way of example the following conditions may be employed to achievestringent hybridization: hybridization at 5× sodium chloride/sodiumcitrate (SSC)/5× Denhardt's solution/1.0% SDS at Tm−5° C. based on theabove equation, followed by a wash of 0.2×SSC/0.1% SDS at 60° C.Moderately stringent hybridization conditions include a washing step in3×SSC at 42° C. It is understood, however, that equivalent stringenciesmay be achieved using alternative buffers, salts and temperatures.Additional guidance regarding hybridization conditions may be found in:Current Protocols in Molecular Biology, John Wiley & Sons, N.Y., 2002,and in: Sambrook et al., Molecular Cloning: a Laboratory Manual, ColdSpring Harbor Laboratory Press, 2001.

The term “treating” or “treatment” as used herein and as is wellunderstood in the art, means an approach for obtaining beneficial ordesired results, including clinical results. Beneficial or desiredclinical results can include, but are not limited to, alleviation oramelioration of one or more symptoms or conditions, diminishment ofextent of disease, stabilized (i.e. not worsening) state of disease,preventing spread of disease, delay or slowing of disease progression,amelioration or palliation of the disease state, diminishment of thereoccurrence of disease, and remission (whether partial or total),whether detectable or undetectable. “Treating” and “Treatment” can alsomean prolonging survival as compared to expected survival if notreceiving treatment. “Treating” and “treatment” as used herein alsoinclude prophylactic treatment. For example, a subject with early stageneoplastic disorder with increased RR levels can be treated to preventprogression or alternatively a subject in remission can be treated withan isolated or recombinant poxvirus or composition described herein toprevent recurrence. Treatment methods comprise administering to asubject a therapeutically effective amount of one or mores isolated orrecombinant poxvirus or compositions described in the presentapplication and optionally consists of a single administration, oralternatively comprises a series of applications. For example, theisolated and/or recombinant viruses and compositions described hereinmay be administered at least once a week, from about one time per weekto about once daily for a given treatment or the isolated or recombinantpoxviruses and/or compositions described herein may be administeredtwice daily. As another example, the isolated or recombinant poxvirus isadministered once only, or for example every 3 weeks for 4 cycles. Thelength of the treatment period depends on a variety of factors, such asthe severity of the disease, the age of the patient, the concentration,the activity of the isolated or recombinant poxviruses and/orcompositions described herein, and/or a combination thereof. It willalso be appreciated that the effective dosage used for the treatment orprophylaxis may increase or decrease over the course of a particulartreatment or prophylaxis regime. Changes in dosage may result and becomeapparent by standard diagnostic assays known in the art. In someinstances, chronic administration may be required.

The dosage administered will vary depending on the use and known factorssuch as the pharmacodynamic characteristics of the particular substance,and its mode and route of administration, age, health, and weight of theindividual recipient, nature and extent of symptoms, kind of concurrenttreatment, frequency of treatment, and the effect desired. Dosage regimemay be adjusted to provide the optimum therapeutic response.

The term “subject” as used herein includes all members of the animalkingdom including mammals, and suitably refers to humans.

As used herein, “contemporaneous administration” and “administeredcontemporaneously” means that two substances are administered to asubject such that they are both biologically active in the subject atthe same time. The exact details of the administration will depend onthe pharmacokinetics of the two substances in the presence of eachother, and can include administering one substance within 24 hours ofadministration of the other, if the pharmacokinetics are suitable.Designs of suitable dosing regimens are routine for one skilled in theart. In particular embodiments, two substances will be administeredsubstantially simultaneously, i.e. within minutes of each other, or in asingle composition that comprises both substances.

As used herein, the phrase “effective amount” or “therapeuticallyeffective amount” means an amount effective, at dosages and for periodsof time necessary to achieve the desired result. For example in thecontext or treating a neoplastic disorder, an effective amount is anamount that for example induces remission, reduces tumor burden, and/orprevents tumor spread or growth compared to the response obtainedwithout administration of the isolated or recombinant poxviruses and/orcompositions described herein. Effective amounts may vary according tofactors such as the disease state, age, sex, weight of the subject. Theamount of a given isolated or recombinant poxvirus and/or compositiondescribed herein that will correspond to such an amount will varydepending upon various factors, such as the given isolated orrecombinant poxvirus and/or composition described herein, thepharmaceutical formulation, the route of administration, the type ofdisease or disorder, the identity of the subject or host being treated,and the like, but can nevertheless be routinely determined by oneskilled in the art.

In understanding the scope of the present disclosure, the term“comprising” and its derivatives, as used herein, are intended to beopen ended terms that specify the presence of the stated features,elements, components, groups, integers, and/or steps, but do not excludethe presence of other unstated features, elements, components, groups,integers and/or steps. The foregoing also applies to words havingsimilar meanings such as the terms, “including”, “having” and theirderivatives. Finally, terms of degree such as “substantially”, “about”and “approximately” as used herein mean a reasonable amount of deviationof the modified term such that the end result is not significantlychanged. These terms of degree should be construed as including adeviation of at least ±5% of the modified term if this deviation wouldnot negate the meaning of the word it modifies.

As used in this specification and the appended claims, the singularforms “a”, “an” and “the” include plural references unless the contentclearly dictates otherwise. Thus for example, a composition containing“a virus” includes a mixture of two or more viruses. It should also benoted that the term “or” is generally employed in its sense including“and/or” unless the content clearly dictates otherwise.

The definitions and embodiments described in particular sections areintended to be applicable to other embodiments herein described forwhich they are suitable as would be understood by a person skilled inthe art.

ii. Viruses, Vectors, Antibodies and Compositions

The disclosure relates to poxviruses with mutations of the small RRsubunit in for example vaccinia virus (VACV) strains, and methods ofusing these viruses. These mutant strains exhibit an impaired ability toreplicate, however, replication is rescued (either fully or partially)in cells over expressing cellular RR subunits, such as cancer cells withincreased RR levels.

Cellular RR subunits were found to co-immunoprecipitate with VACV F4 inthe presence or absence of. Furthermore, the disclosure providesimmunofluorescence studies which indicate that viral RR subunits arefound throughout the cytoplasm of infected cells, well-positioning themto interact with cellular RR subunits that also have an exclusivelycytoplasmic localization. Without wishing to be bound by theory, it isbelieved that production of these virus/host RR complexes may helprescue defects in replication in the presence or absence of I4 (large RRsubunit also referred to as R1). The disclosure provides that poxvirusesrequire at least a small RR subunit for proper replication either toprovide required dNTPs or because of some other, unknown function ofthese proteins.

Accordingly in an aspect, the disclosure provides an isolated poxviruscomprising a functionally inactivated R2 gene. In another embodiment,the disclosure provides a recombinant poxvirus comprising a functionallyinactivated R2 gene. In another embodiment, the isolated or recombinantvirus replicates more efficiently in cells with increased levels of RR.In another embodiment, the isolated or recombinant virus replicates moreefficiently in neoplastic disorder cells than in wild type cells. In anembodiment, the poxvirus is not a NYCBH vaccinia virus comprising adeletion of 180 bp of R2 sequence. In a further embodiment, the poxvirusis not a Wyeth vaccinia virus vaccine strain comprising a deletion of180 bp of R2 sequence.

It is demonstrated herein that viruses with either a deletion of the R2gene or a point mutation in R2 that acts as a dominant negative andinhibits RR enzymatic function, are oncolytic and useful for treatingneoplastic disorders. It is predictable that other mutations in R2 thatinterfere with and/or ablate RR activity compared to wild-type, forexample R2 mutants that are catalytically inactive, preferablycomprising deletions of a least one catalytically important residue,such as those illustrated in FIG. 1B and optionally which complex withother RR subunits interfering with RR activity (e.g. dominant negativemutants), or R2 mutants that are deleted for all or part of the R1binding domain, are useful in the methods disclosed herein. Accordinglyin an embodiment, the functionally inactivated R2 gene comprises adominant negative mutation, a point mutation or a deletion mutation,wherein the R2 encoded protein of the deletion mutant lacks at least 2amino acids. In another embodiment, the protein encoded by thefunctionally inactive R2 gene forms complexes with cellular RR subunitswhen expressed in a cell. In a further embodiment the deletion mutantlacks at least 5, at least 7, at least 10, at least 20, at least 30, atleast 35, at least 40, at least 50, at least 60, at least 70, at least80, at least 90, at least 100, at least 110, at least 120, at least 130,at least 140, at least 150, at least 160, at least 170, at least 180, atleast 181, at least 190, at least 200, at least 210, at least 220, atleast 230, at least 240, at least 250, at least 260, at least 270, atleast 280, at least 290, at least 300, at least 310, or at least 320amino acid residues. In another embodiment, the deleted amino acidscomprise deletion of at least one catalytically important residue and orthe R1 binding site, for example as provided in FIG. 1B. In anembodiment, the isolated or recombinant virus wherein the functionallyinactivated R2 comprises a Y300 mutation such as a Y300F mutation,and/or any mutation of one or more of the following residues that causesloss or reduction of catalytic activity: W34, E38, D70, E101, H104,Y108, F167, F171, G181, I193, D196, E197, H200, Y254, and E294. In anembodiment, the deleted amino acids comprise part or all of the R1binding domain, reducing binding to R1 by for example at least 50%, 60%,70%, 80%, 90% or more.

The group of poxviruses that are expected to be useful include forexample poxviruses that are able to infect mammalian cells, particularlyhuman cells and which in their wild type form express a R2 gene.Accordingly in an embodiment, the wild type poxvirus comprises a R2 geneand is infectious for mammalian cells. In an embodiment, the poxvirus isinfectious for human cells. Poxvirus genus' comprising an R2 gene andwhich are infectious for mammalian cells include for example generalisted in Table 3, such Orthopoxviruses such as Vaccinia viruses,Leporipoxviruses and Yatapoxviruses. Accordingly in an embodiment, thepoxvirus is selected from Orthopoxviruses such as Vaccinia viruses,Leporipoxviruses and Yatapoxviruses. In an embodiment, the poxvirus isselected from a genus in Table 3, optionally an Orthopoxvirus, aLeporipoxvirus, a Suipoxvirus, a Capripoxvirus, a Cervidpoxvirus, aAvipoxvirus, a Molluscipoxvirus, a Parapoxvirus and a Yatapoxvirus. Inanother embodiment, the poxvirus is unclassified, for example acrocodilepox virus (CRV). In an embodiment, the poxvirus species is aspecies listed in Table 3, such as horsepoxvirus (HSPV), taterapox virus(TATV, variaola virus (VARY), swinepox virus (SPXV) etc.

Vaccinia viruses for example are useful as oncolytic agents. Vacciniaviruses, as well as many other Orthopoxviruses (e.g. ECTV), have a quickand efficient life cycle, forming mature virions in the order of 6 h andvaccinia virus spreads efficiently cell to cell thus increasing theefficacy of an in vivo infection. Vaccinia viruses can infect a widerange of human tissues and there is a large body of knowledge about itsbiology and extensive experience with it clinically as part of thesmallpox vaccination program. Accordingly, in a preferred embodiment,the poxvirus is a vaccinia virus.

The experiments disclosed herein have been conducted in a laboratoryadapted strain of vaccinia virus. A number of laboratory adapted andclinical strains are known to a person of skill in the art. For humanapplications, a clinical grade virus is useful. Accordingly in oneembodiment, the isolated or recombinant poxvirus is a clinical gradevirus. In an embodiment, the vaccinia virus strain is WR, Tian Tian,NYCBH, Wyeth, Copenhagen, Lister, MVA, Lederle, Temple of Heaven,Tashkent, USSR, Evans, Praha, LIVP, Ikeda, 1HD, Dls, LC16, EM-63, IC,Malbrán, DUKE, Acambis, 3737, CVA and AS. In an embodiment, the strainis NYCBH with the proviso that the functionally inactivated R2 gene doesnot encode a R2 gene deleted for 180 bp. In another embodiment thestrain is Wyeth with the proviso that the functionally inactivated R2does not encode a R2 deleted for 180 bp. In an embodiment, the isolatedor recombinant vaccinia virus comprises a functionally inactivated R2which is deleted for at least 2, at least 5, at least 10, at least 20,at least 30, at least 35, at least 40, at least 50, at least 60, atleast 61, at least 70, at least 80, at least 90, at least 100, at least110, at least 120, at least 130, at least 140, at least 150, at least160, at least 170, at least 180, at least 190, at least 200, at least210, at least 220, at least 230, at least 240, at least 250, at least260, at least 270, at least 280, at least 290, at least 300, at least310, at least 320 amino acid residues of SEQ ID NO:1. In anotherembodiment, the isolated or recombinant poxvirus and/or vaccinia viruscomprises a functionally inactivated R2 deleted for at least 2, at least5, at least 10, at least 20, at least 30, at least 35, at least 40, atleast 50, at least 60, at least 61, at least 70, at least 80, at least90, at least 100, at least 110, at least 120, at least 130, at least140, at least 150, at least 160, at least 170, at least 180, at least190, at least 200, at least 210, at least 220, at least 230, at least240, at least 250, at least 260, at least 270, at least 280, at least290, at least 300, at least 310, at least 320 amino acid residues,wherein the R2 is at least 80%, at least 85%, at least 90%, at least 95,at least 98%, at least 99% or more identical to SEQ ID NO:1. In anembodiment, the deletion mutant of R2 comprises deletion of at least 310amino acid residues. In another embodiment, the deletion mutant of R2comprises deletion of amino acid residues 1 to 310.

The deletion can also be described in terms of nucleotide positions. Forexample, a deletion of at least 30 amino acid residues of R2 correspondsto a deletion of at least 90 nucleotides. The deletion can also bedescribed referring to specific genomic positions for a particularstrain, e.g. WR strain. A person skilled in the art would readily beable to determine the corresponding positions in other strains.Accordingly in an embodiment, nucleotides corresponding to nucleotides33948-32987 of WR genome are deleted. The nucleotide sequence of WR isprovided for example in Genbank Accession # NC-006998, which is hereinincorporated by reference.

It is also disclosed herein that additional functional inactivations,e.g. gene deletions or mutations, of other poxvirus genes such as R1 andthymidine kinase (also referred to as TK or J2R) can be combined withthe R2. Accordingly in an embodiment, the virus further comprises afunctionally inactivated R1 gene, thymidine kinase gene and/or vacciniavirus growth factor gene. Mutations including point mutations, dominantnegative mutations and deletions that affect activity or expressionlevels are useful with the present methods. In an embodiment, thefunctionally inactivated R1 gene comprises a deletion of nucleotides61929-64240 in the vaccinia WR genome which deletes amino acids 1-771 ofI4. In another embodiment, the functionally inactivated J2R genecomprises a disruption in the J2R ORF such that an insertion is made inbetween nucleotides 81001 and 81002 in the WR genome which causesdisruption between amino acid 92 and 93 such that only the first 92residues of J2 are expressed.

The isolated or recombinant virus in an embodiment, preferentiallyreplicates in neoplastic disorder cells, for example neoplastic disordercells with increased RR levels. Cancer cells have been demonstrated toamplify RR subunit genes and can become resistant to chemotherapeutics,particularly to drugs that target RR activity such as hydroxyurea andgemcitabine. The disclosed poxviruses would as the results hereindemonstrate replicate with increased efficiency in cells with increasedcellular RR levels. In another embodiment, the isolated or recombinantpoxvirus is oncolytic.

In another aspect, the application provides a composition comprising theisolated or recombinant virus disclosed herein, and a pharmaceuticallyacceptable diluent or carrier. In an embodiment, the diluent or carriercomprises phosphate-buffered saline solution. In another embodiment, thecomposition comprises a chemotherapeutic useful for treating neoplasticdisorders with increased RR levels. In another embodiment, thecomposition further comprises hydroxyurea, gemcitabine and/or anucleoside analog.

In a further aspect, the disclosure provides a vector for generating apoxvirus with a functionally inactivated R2 comprising:

-   -   a vector backbone;    -   a 5′ nucleic acid comprising a 5′ flanking sequence of a genomic        R2 gene;    -   an exchange cassette operably linked to a promoter, such as a        NEO gene cassette and or a gusA gene (H5 promoter) or a mutant        R2 gene; and    -   a 3′ nucleic acid comprising 3′ flanking sequence of the genomic        R2 gene,        wherein the 5′ nucleic acid is upstream of the exchange cassette        and the 3′ nucleic acid is downstream of the exchange cassette.        In an embodiment, the distance between the start of the 5′        nucleic acid and the end of the 3′ nucleic acid is greater than        or less than 180 nucleotides.

In an embodiment, the vector backbone is pZIPPY-NEO/GUS. A personskilled in the art will recognize that other vector backbones useful astargeting vectors comprising for example Cre-IoxP site recombinationtechnology would also be useful.

A further aspect relates to an antibody generated using ectromelia virusR2 antigen that detects ectromelia virus R2 antigen and vaccinia virusF4. In an embodiment, the antibody is a monoclonal antibody. In anotherembodiment, the antibody is a polyclonal antibody. Methods for makingpolyclonal and monoclonal antibodies are known in the art and disclosedherein.

Compositions comprising the antibody and a diluent or carrier, such as aBSA optionally in solution to stabilize the antibody, are provided inanother aspect. Also compositions comprising the vector constructsdescribed herein with a suitable diluent or carrier are provided.

iii. Methods

Disclosed herein are poxviruses comprising functionally inactivated R2genes. These viruses are useful as oncolytic agents for inducing celldeath in a neoplastic disorder cell and/or for use in treatingneoplastic disorders. Accordingly in an aspect the disclosure provides amethod of inducing death in a neoplastic disorder cell, the methodcomprising contacting the cells with an isolated or recombinant virus orcomposition described herein. In an embodiment, the cell is in vivo.

In another embodiment, the disclosure provides a method of treating aneoplastic disorder comprising administering an effective amount of theisolated virus or composition described herein. In an embodiment, theisolated virus is a recombinant virus. In certain embodiments, theisolated or recombinant virus described herein is oncolytic. In anembodiment, the isolated virus is a virus described herein. In anembodiment, the isolated virus is a virus described in Table 1, 2 or 3.

The isolated or recombinant viruses are useful for treating a variety ofneoplastic disorders. In an embodiment, the neoplastic disorder iscancer. A number of cancers have been shown to have increased RR levelsand/or are treated with chemotherapeutics that target RR. In anembodiment, the cancer is selected from breast cancer, colorectalcancer, hepatic cancer such as hepatocellular carcinoma, pancreaticcancer, skin cancer such as melanoma, esophageal cancer, leukemia,ovarian cancer, head and neck cancer, gliomas and gastric cancer.

Hydroxyurea and gemcitabine are chemotherapeutics that target RR.Accordingly in an embodiment, the cancer cell or cancer is resistant tohydroxyurea and/or gemcitabine. Use of chemotherapeutics such ashydroxyurea and gemcitabine can induce resistance. Accordingly in anembodiment, the cancer is a resistant cancer, such as a HU- and/orgemcitabine-resistant cancer. In another embodiment, the resistantcancer is resistant to hydroxyurea and/or gemcitabine.

Neoplastic disorders for example cancers can have increased RR levels asmentioned. Accordingly in an embodiment, the cancer cell or cancercomprises increased levels of ribonucleotide reductase compared to anormal cell of the same tissue type.

Increased RR levels can be reflected in increased protein, RNA and/oractivity levels. For example, increased RR expression has been directlycorrelated with increased RR activity (9). In an embodiment, the levelof ribonucleotide reductase is assessed by determining the activitylevel of the ribonucleotide reductase (e.g. one or more subunits, suchas R2), the protein level of the ribonucleotide reductase, the RNA levelof the ribonucleotide reductase or the levels of dNTPs, wherein anincrease in the activity, protein, or RNA level of ribonucleotidereductase or an increase in the levels of dNTPS is indicative the cancercell or cancer has increased levels of ribonucleotide reductase. Aperson skilled in the art will recognize that a number of methods, suchas methods disclosed herein can be used to assess the level of RR,including for example immunoassays for protein levels, quantitativeRT-PCR for RNA levels and enzyme or binding assays for activity levelsor automated quantitative analysis.

The increase in the level of ribonucleotide reductase (e.g. of a subunitsuch as R2, or complex catalytic level) is in an embodiment, at least10%, at least 20%, at least 30%, at least 40%, at least 50%, at least60%, at least 70% at least 80%, at least 90%, at least 100% or greaterthan 100% more compared to a normal cell of the same tissue type. Inanother embodiment, the increase in the level of ribonucleotidereductase (e.g. cellular RR) is at least about 2 fold, at least about 3fold, at least about 4 fold, at least about 5 fold, at least about 6fold, at least about 7 fold, at least about 8 fold, at least about 9fold, at least about 10 fold, at least about 15 fold, at least about 20fold or more. The increase can for example be an increase in levels ofprotein, RNA and/or activity.

In certain embodiments, the subject is first assessed for neoplasticdisorder RR levels. Accordingly, in an embodiment, the method comprisesdetermining the level of RR in the cancer cell or a sample from thesubject comprising cancer cells prior to administration of the isolatedor recombinant virus described herein.

In an embodiment, the subject is also treated with another indicatedtherapy. For example, in an embodiment, the subject is also administereda chemotherapeutic. As mentioned hydroxyurea is a chemotherapeutic usedto treat a wide variety of cancers, including cancers with increased RRlevels. In an embodiment, the subject is also administered hydroxyureawherein the hydroxyurea is administered prior to, contemporaneouslywith, or following administration of the isolated or recombinant virusor composition of the disclosure.

In another embodiment, wherein the subject is also administered anucleoside analog, wherein the nucleoside analog is administered priorto, contemporaneously with, or following administration of the isolatedor recombinant virus or composition of the disclosure. In an embodiment,the nucleoside analog is cidofovir (CDV). CDV is an antiviral compoundused to treat clinical poxvirus infections under emergency situations.CDV has been to be effective at killing cancer cells. CDV, can forexample be used if the replication of the oncolytic virus was deemed tobe harmful to the patient and the virus had to be eliminated. As shownherein, the mutant viruses are hypersensitive to CDV and therefore wouldbe highly amendable to such treatment.

In another embodiment, the subject is also administered gemcitabinewherein the gemcitabine is administered prior to, contemporaneouslywith, or following administration of the isolated or recombinant virusor composition disclosed herein.

In an embodiment, the combination therapy is administeredcontemporaneously. In another embodiment, the combination therapy isadministered in a two-step, or consecutive type treatment. In anembodiment, the drug e.g. chemotherapeutic is first administered, andthe isolated or recombinant poxvirus disclosed herein is subsequentlyadministered for example to destroy any residual or resistant cells, forexample residual tumor or resistant cancer cells.

In another embodiment, the method further comprises detecting thepresence of the administered isolated or recombinant poxvirus, forexample the administered vaccinia virus in the neoplastic disorder celland/or in a sample from a subject administered an isolated orrecombinant virus or composition described herein. For example, thesubject can be tested prior to administration and/or followingadministration of the isolated or recombinant poxvirus or compositiondescribed herein to assess for example the progression of the infection.In an embodiment, the isolated or recombinant poxvirus of the disclosurecomprises a detection cassette and detecting the presence of theadministered isolated or recombinant poxvirus comprises detecting thedetection cassette encoded protein. For example, wherein the detectioncassette encodes a fluorescent protein, the subject or sample is imagedusing a method for visualizing fluorescence.

A further aspect includes use of an isolated or recombinant virus or acomposition described herein to induce death in a neoplastic disordercell such as a cancer cell or to treat a neoplastic disorder such ascancer.

A further aspect includes an isolated poxvirus comprising a functionallyinactivated R2 gene or a composition comprising the isolated poxvirusfor use in inducing death in a neoplastic disorder cell and/or for usein treating a neoplastic disorder.

The above disclosure generally describes the present application. A morecomplete understanding can be obtained by reference to the followingspecific examples. These examples are described solely for the purposeof illustration and are not intended to limit the scope of theapplication. Changes in form and substitution of equivalents arecontemplated as circumstances might suggest or render expedient.Although specific terms have been employed herein, such terms areintended in a descriptive sense and not for purposes of limitation.

The following non-limiting examples are illustrative of the presentapplication:

EXAMPLES Example 1

Results

Generation of ribonucleotide reductase vaccinia mutants. In order toinvestigate the genetic requirement of the genes encoding the small(F4L) and large (I4L) subunits of the VACV ribonucleotide reductase (RR)for viral replication, a series of mutant VACV strains were generated inwhich one (ΔI4L; ΔF4L) or both (ΔI4L/ΔF4L) of these viral RR genes weredeleted from the WR genome (FIG. 1A; see materials and methods fordetailed descriptions of virus construction). Given that RR complexesare involved in the de novo pathway of dNTP biogenesis and VACV encodesa thymidine kinase (J2R) involved in the alternative and complementarysalvage pathway, it was decided to determine if insertional inactivationof the J2R locus would exacerbate any possible phenotypes of the RRdeletion strains. Therefore, inactivation of J2R was carried out in someof the RR mutant backgrounds to generate ΔI4L/ΔF4L/ΔJ2R and ΔF4L/ΔJ2Rstrains. In some cases, a His_(s)-tagged F4L gene or a His₆-tagged F4Lgene encoding the amino acid substitution Y300F was inserted into theJ2R locus of ΔF4L strains. Y300 represents a highly-conserved tyrosineresidue found in essentially all mammalian RR small (R2) subunits (FIG.1B). The homologous residue in mouse R2 (Y370) is required for thetransfer of radicals in between the large (R1) and small subunits whichis required for catalysis (30). Substitution of Y370 for phenylalanineabolishes catalysis but does not impede physical interaction of R2 withR1 (30). Substitution of the homologous residue in human p53R2 (Y331)with phenylalanine also abolishes RR activity of p53R2/R1 complexes(43). Therefore the Y300F substitution in F4 is predicted to inactivatethe radical transfer pathway between small and large RR subunits whilemaintaining the capacity of these subunits to interact.

PCR amplifications with primers specific to the region of the WR genomethat was altered in each mutant were used to confirm the deletion orinactivation of the targeted loci. The results of these experiments forthe major strains disclosed herein are shown in FIG. 1C along with modeldiagrams depicting the approximate binding sites of the primers for eachtype of PCR reaction. Primers specific for a region of the viral DNApolymerase gene (E9L) were used as a positive control for amplificationoff of the various viral DNA templates. The primers used for analysis ofI4L and F4L loci only amplify fragments of these loci if the respectiveORFs are intact. Amplification of I4L PCR products was only apparent inthose strains not transfected with the I4L knockout vector (FIG. 1C).Likewise, F4L PCR reactions confirmed the presence of F4L sequence inonly those strains not transfected with the F4L knockout vector (FIG.1D). The primers for J2R locus analysis bind to sequences flanking thesite of insertion of the pSC66 vector (see materials and methods).Therefore, intact J2R loci give rise to small (˜0.5 kb) PCR productswhereas insertion of the lacZ gene (and flanking sequences) from pSC66produces a much larger (˜4 kb) product. In those cases where the pSC66vector contained a cloned F4L gene the PCR product increases in size to˜5 kb due to the ˜1 kb of sequence of the F4L ORF. All J2R PCRamplifications produced products of the expected size within eachconstruct confirming the integrity or insertional inactivation of theJ2R gene (FIG. 1C). Western blotting confirmed the presence or absenceof the viral RR subunits in each of the isolates (FIG. 1D). Althoughequal amounts of protein were loaded in each lane, the strain expressinga wild-type F4L gene in the J2R locus appeared to have elevated levelsof F4 compared to wild-type virus whereas the strain expressing theY300E-substituted F4L gene was observed to have slightly reduced F4expression (FIG. 1D). The former case is likely a result of the F4L genebeing under the control of a strong early/late promoter whereas theendogenous F4L promoter is activated only at early times duringinfection (29). The lower F4 expression of the point-mutant is likelyreflective of the generally-reduced replicative capacity of this virus(see below). These and other VACV strains are summarized in Table 1. SeeMaterials and Methods for details of virus construction.

Characterization of plaque morphology and size of ribonucleotidereductase vaccinia mutants. As an initial step to characterize thegrowth properties of the viruses described in FIG. 1, plaque size andmorphology of these strains was analyzed on BSC-40 cells. Wild-type andΔI4L strains had similar plaque morphologies with large clearings in thecenter of plaques and primary plaques were typically closely associatedwith smaller, secondary plaques likely arising from the release ofextracellular enveloped virus from the larger primary plaque sites (FIG.2A). Quantitative analysis of plaque areas also indicated nostatistically significant differences between wild-type and ΔI4L strains(FIG. 2B). In contrast, viruses with F4L or F4L and J2R deletedpresented with significantly smaller plaques (p<0.05) than wild-typevirus with mean plaque areas only 55-60% that of wild-type. Furthermore,these primary plaques were typically devoid of nearby secondary plaquesunlike wild-type and ΔI4L strains. However, ΔF4L/ΔJ2R strains expressinga His₆-tagged F4 protein from the J2R locus (ΔF4L/ΔJ2R^(HisF4L))displayed plaques characteristic of wild-type virus in terms of size andthe presence of secondary plaques. Strikingly, strains encoding theY300F substitution produced plaques that were not only significantlysmaller (p<0.05) than wild-type virus (FIG. 2B) but upon furtheranalysis, were also 35-40% the size of all other ΔF4L strains and thesedifferences were statistically significant (p<0.05). These resultssuggest that deletion of F4L has a more detrimental effect on plaquesize than deletion of I4L. It further suggests that re-introduction of aHis₆-tagged F4L gene into the J2R locus can rescue this smaller plaquephenotype of the ΔF4L strains. However, expression of the Y300F F4protein appears to more severely inhibit plaque formation even comparedto strains missing both RR subunit genes and the viral thymidine kinasegene.

We also tested the ability of other, His₆-tagged Chordopoxvirus or hostR2 proteins to rescue the small plaque phenotype of the ΔF4L strain. TheR2 genes encoded by ECTV, MYXV and SFV R2 genes were all able to rescuethe small plaque phenotype, but interestingly the Hp53R2 gene failed torescue this phenotype (FIG. 2B). These results implied thatChordopoxvirus R2 proteins have conserved a specific function and/oractivity level that is not recapitulated by Hp53R2.

Characterization of replication capacities of ribonucleotide reductasevaccinia mutants. To explore the growth kinetics of these RR mutantsfurther, growth curves were conducted in HeLa cells. As previouslyreported (6), deletion of I4L had little effect on total virus yieldsafter 48 h of replication with the wild-type strain replicating totiters only 2-fold higher than the ΔI4L strain (FIG. 2C). In contrast,differences between wild-type and ΔF4L strains were readily apparent by18 h post-infection and this trend continued to the end of theexperiment such that wild-type titers were ˜15-50-fold higher than ΔF4Lstrains (FIG. 2C). Re-introduction of the F4L gene into the J2R locusappeared to rescue the replication defects observed in F4L strains asthis virus replicated similarly to the ΔI4L strain. In contrast,introduction of the Y300F substituted F4L gene inhibited productivereplication over the course of the experiment (FIG. 2D). These resultssuggest that deletion of the F4L gene impairs vaccinia replication to ahigher degree than deletion of I4L and that concomitant deletion of F4Land J2R does not appear to have any synergistic effects on thereplicative capacities of vaccinia in cell culture. Furthermore theobservation that introduction of a wild-type F4L gene into the J2R locuscan rescue the growth defect of ΔF4L strains suggests that the observeddefect of the ΔF4L is due to the lack of F4 expression and not to otherpossible idiosyncratic effects of deleting the F4L locus. Finally, thefact that the strain expressing the Y300F F4 protein has more severelyreduced replication capacity than viruses lacking both RR subunitssuggests that the Y300F mutant may act as a dominant negative. If F4protein normally binds to other cellular (and viral) R1 subunits andforms functional complexes during infection then the Y300F F4 proteinwould be predicted to form inactive complexes upon binding, preventingthese R1 subunits from interacting with endogenous cellular R2 proteins.Introduction of the Y300F F4L gene into the J2R locus of ΔI4L/ΔF4Lstrains also leads to production of small plaques that are similar insize to those found in the ΔF4L/ΔJ2R^(HisY300FF4L) strain (FIG. 2B)suggesting that the absence of I4L in these strains does not precludethe Y300F mutant from exerting its negative effects on replication.

The results disclosed herein suggest that the ΔF4L strains were impairedin their ability to replicate compared to wild-type virus. This isbecause RR plays a key role in dNTP biogenesis and our initial studiesfound that ΔF4L (FIG. 11A), but not ΔI4L strains (FIG. 11B), exhibitedreduced late gene expression, which is common consequence of defects inDNA replication. In order to determine if this reduced viral replicationmay be the result of delayed or reduced genome replication, BSC-40 cellswere infected with either wild-type or the ΔF4L strain to track theprogression of viral progeny production and genome replication inparallel experiments. In order to determine if reduced genomereplication may be a result of decreased RR activity, treatments inwhich wild-type or ΔF4L culture media contained the RR inhibitor HU wereincluded because resistance to RR inhibitors is correlated with higherRR expression (33). The results of these experiments are shown in FIG.3. As observed previously, the ΔF4L had impaired replication kineticsgenerating only 15% of the total virus observed for the wild-type strainat 24 h post-infection (FIG. 3A). Analysis of viral genome replicationalso indicated delayed DNA replication kinetics of the ΔF4L strain withgenomic DNA only being detectable at 9 h post-infection compared towild-type infections in which DNA was detected as early as 6 h. Evenafter 24 h of infection, the ΔF4L strain still had only replicatedgenomic DNA to ˜18% the level of wild-type virus. Furthermore, additionof 0.5 mM HU to ΔF4L cultures prevented the detection of genomic DNAthroughout the entire 24 h infection period whereas wild-type virusproduced detectable genomic DNA albeit with delayed kinetics and atreduced quantities much like the ΔF4L strain in the absence of HU (FIG.3B). Comparison of FIG. 3B & A suggest that peak replication of the ΔF4Loccurred between 9 and 12 h post-infection as this is when the largestincrease in viral titers as well as genome replication is observed. Incontrast, the wild-type strain undergoes large increases in titers andgenome replication earlier, between 6 and 9 h post-infection and thenagain between 18 and 24 h post-infection, with this second increaseessentially absent in the ΔF4L infections. These results suggest thatthe impaired replication of the ΔF4L strain may be at least partiallydue to reduced genome synthesis and the hypersensitivity of this strainto HU suggests that these infections experience reduced total RRactivity which is directly correlated to RR protein expression levels,which in turn correlates with sensitivity to RR inhibitors (9).

ΔF4L strains are uniquely hypersensitive to cidofovir and HU. Theprevious studies suggested that the lower replication capacity of theΔF4L strains may be due to reduced genome replication. However, it isdifficult to interpret the meaning of biochemical measurements of poolsizes because of uncertainties surrounding how dNTPs are distributed ininfected cells. Instead, we tested whether VACV RR mutants exhibit analtered sensitivity to the antiviral drug cidofovir (CDV). CDV isconverted by cellular kinases to the diphosphoryl derivative (CDVpp) [8]which is competitive with respect to dCTP (45) and inhibits VACV E9 DNApolymerase activity (46, 47). Thus, CDV sensitivity can be used as anindirect probe for changes in dCTP pool sizes. Table 2 summarizes how RRmutations affect CDV sensitivity as assessed by plaque reduction assaysand calculated 50% effective concentration (EC₅₀) values. Wild-type andΔF4L/ΔJ2R^(HisF4L) strains exhibited similar mean EC₅₀ values of 42.0and 41.2 μM, respectively. The ΔI4L strain was significantly moresensitive than the aforementioned strains (P<0.05) having a mean EC₅₀value of 25.1 μM. However, loss of F4L (or F4L and J2R) resulted ingreater hypersensitivities to CDV (P<0.05) with EC₅₀ values ˜5-7-foldlower than wild-type values. The ΔF4L/ΔJ2R^(HisY300FF4L) virus was evenmore sensitive to CDV (EC₅₀=3.5 μM) than either wild-type (P<0.05) orΔF4L (P<0.05) strains. As noted previously (21, 48), inactivation of J2Rdid not further alter VACV sensitivity to CDV (Table 2). The trends inCDV sensitivity closely mirrored those found in measurements of HUsensitivity using a plaque reduction assay (Table 2). The order ofresistance to HU (from measurements of EC₅₀) was wild-type≧ΔF4L/ΔJ2R^(HisF4L)>ΔI4L>ΔF4L>ΔF4L/ΔJ2R^(HisY300FF4L) and seemedunaffected by the presence or absence of the J2R gene (Table 2). Inorder to determine if the hypersensitivities of ΔF4L andΔF4L/ΔJ2R^(HisY300FF4L) strains to CDV and HU were specific and notsimply due to the reduced replicative abilities of these viruses, weperformed a plaque reduction assay using phosphonoacetic acid (PAA). PAAis a pyrophosphate analog and DNA polymerase inhibitor that isnoncompetitive with dNTPs (49). Therefore, the efficacy of PAA ininhibiting virus replication would not be expected to be dependent uponRR activity or dNTP pool sizes. Consistent with this, RR mutant VACVstrains were not hypersensitive to PAA when compared to wild-type virus(Table 2). These mutant strains were also not hypersensitive toisatin-β-thiosemicarbazone (IBT), which causes aberrant late viral mRNAbiogenesis (50). Collectively, these data all point to a deficiency indNTP pools as being the cause of the ΔF4L strain growth deficiency (FIG.2) and suggest that F4, is the critical determinant of growth efficiencyand drug sensitivity.

Immunoprecipitation of vaccinia and human ribonucleotide reductasesubunits. The observation that ΔF4L strains were more inhibited in termsof plaque morphology and growth kinetics than ΔI4L strains is strikingconsidering that F4 and I4 must interact with each other to form activeRR complexes. The reduced DNA replication and hypersensitivity of ΔF4Lstrains to CDV further suggested an inherit defect at the level ofgenome replication. A possible explanation for these observations isthat F4 may form functional RR complexes with cellular R1 proteins whichnormally contribute to the establishment of sufficient dNTP pools forviral replication. Previous observations using purified mouse RRproteins demonstrated both F4 and I4 could interact with large and smallmouse RR subunits, respectively and form catalytically-active enzymes(7). Interestingly, an F4-mouse R1 complex was more active than F4-I4,mouse R2-mouse R1, or I4-mouse R2 complex (7). In order to investigatethe possibility of complex formation between F4 and cellularribonucleotide reductase proteins, immunoprecipitations were performedin wild-type virus-infected HeLa cells using antibodies againstendogenous HR1, HR2 or Hp53R2 RR subunits. Interestingly, F4 wasco-immunoprecipitated in each of these cases but not with controlantibodies (FIG. 4). These results suggest that F4 physically interactswith endogenous levels of all three of the human RR subunits includingHR1, HR2 and Hp53R2. Interaction of F4 with cellular R2 subunits wasunexpected. It was not previously known that R2 subunits from vacciniacould interact with cellular R2 proteins and was unexpected. We thoughtthese interactions may be in part due to enhanced cellular RR subunitexpression after infection. However, we were unable to observe inductionof cellular RR expression by 24 h post-infection (FIG. 12). To furtherconfirm these results, VACV strains expressing either Flag-tagged HR1(ΔJ2R^(FlagHR1)) or Flag-tagged I4 (ΔI4L/ΔJ2R^(FlagI4L)) wereconstructed and used in new immunoprecipitation experiments.Immunoprecipitation with anti-Flag antibodies confirmed the interactionof HR1 and I4 with F4 as well as with HR2 and Hp53R2 (FIG. 5A). Weakerbands were typically observed in the immunoprecipitations of Flag-taggedHR1 compared to Flag-tagged I4 despite similar amounts of these proteinsbeing immunoprecipitated (FIG. 5A). This result is likely due tocompetition between the Flag-HR1 protein and endogenous HR1 whereas inFlag-I4 is expressed from a ΔI4L strain and thus does not have tocompete for binding to R2 proteins with endogenous I4. We also preparedextracts from cells infected with ΔF4L/ΔJ2R^(HisY300FF4L) orΔF4L/ΔJ2R^(HisF4L) viruses and observed that these His₆-tagged proteinscould also be co-immunoprecipitated with HR1 protein (FIG. 5B).Reciprocal co-immunoprecipitation experiments confirmed an interactionbetween F4 and HR1 proteins (FIG. 13). These results confirm that humanand viral RR subunits interact within infected cells.

Other Chordopoxvirus R2 proteins rescued the replication defect of VACVΔF4L strains (FIG. 2B). Therefore, we determined whether these proteinscould also interact with HR1. ECTV, MYXV, and SFV R2 proteins allco-immunoprecipitated with HR1 (FIG. 5B). Although there appeared to bedifferences in the efficiency of HR1 association, western blotting oflysates showed that this reflected differences in R2 expression levels(FIG. 5B). These results confirm that RR subunits from poxviruses thatinfect a diversity of mammalian hosts have conserved the capacity tointeract with HR1.

Localization of viral and human ribonucleotide reductase subunits duringvaccinia infection. Previous studies have demonstrated an exclusivelycytoplasmic distribution of mammalian RR proteins in uninfected cells(13, 14, 27). Confocal microscopy studies with antibodies directedagainst endogenous (FIG. 6A) or epitope-tagged (FIG. 6B) RR subunitssuggested that VACV infection did not alter host RR localization andVACV RR subunits were also found to exhibit a similar cytoplasmicdistribution. These results support the immunoprecipitation data in thatboth viral and human RR proteins are found within the same generalcellular compartment (the cytoplasm) during infection where they havethe possibility of interacting.

Requirement of C-Terminal residues of F4 for interaction with HR1. Theprevious studies showed that F4 interacts with HR1 but did not provewhether such an interaction was essential for viral replication.Numerous structural and peptide-inhibition studies of class I RRproteins have identified a C-terminal peptide (boxed in FIG. 1B) in R2subunits as critical for interaction with R1 proteins [11, 57, 58, 59,60, 61]. Since this C-terminal peptide is well conserved in F4 (FIG.1B), we speculated that HR1-F4 interactions were also dependent on thispeptide. To test this hypothesis, we generated the VACV strain ΔF4L/ΔJ2R^(HisF4LΔR1BD), encoding a truncation mutant of F4 that lacks theC-terminal seven residues representing the putative R1-binding domain(R1BD). We also generated an R1BD mutant that also encodes the Y300Fsubstitution, (ΔF4L/ΔJ2R^(HisY300FF4LΔR1BD) ). As shown in FIG. 7A,His₆-tagged F4 co-immunoprecipitated with HR1 in HeLa cell extracts.However, there was a clear reduction (by ˜90%) in co-immunoprecipitationof His₆-tagged F4 proteins lacking the R1BD, despite comparable levelsof these two forms of F4 in lysates and immunoprecipitates. Thus, F4appears to have conserved the R1-binding peptide encoded by class I RRs.

We used plaque area measurements to determine if deleting the R¹BD wouldalter VACV plating properties (FIG. 7B). The control viruses exhibitedthe same relative plaque sizes noted previously (i.e.wild-type=ΔF4L/ΔJ2R^(HisF4L)>ΔF4L>ΔF4L/ΔJ2R^(HisY300FF4L)) and thedifferences were all significant (P<0.05). However, theΔF4L/ΔJ2R^(HisF4LΔR1BD) and ΔF4L/ΔJ2R^(HisY300FF4LΔR1BD) strainsproduced plaques no different in size from those produced by ΔF4Lstrains (P>0.05). This suggested that the F4 R1BD was not only requiredfor RR activity, but that the HR1-F4 interaction was also responsiblefor the dominant negative effects observed with strains encoding theY300E-substituted F4 protein with an intact R1BD. We also confirmed inthese studies that inactivation of J2R alone had no significant effecton plaque size (FIG. 7B).

Replication of ribonucleotide reductase mutant vaccinia strains inpancreatic cancer cell lines. Based on the results previously describedit was predicted that if the defect in replication of the ΔF4L strainswas due to reduced total ribonucleotide reductase activity in infectedcells (and subsequent lower dNTP pools) then the growth of these strainsshould be enhanced in cell lines over-expressing cellular RR subunitsand impeded in cells that have low levels of cellular RR expression.PANC-1 and Capan-2 cells are pancreatic cancer cell lines that have beenpreviously reported to have high and low levels, respectively of RRsubunit expression (9, 10). In order to confirm these results and toensure that these results were also true of infected cultures,western-blots were performed on lysates prepared from mock orwild-type-infected cultures of PANC-1 and Capan-2 cells (FIG. 8A). Theresults clearly show the reduced expression of HR1, HR2, and Hp53R2 inCapan-2 cells relative to PANC-1 cells, and this was true in both mockand VACV-infected cultures. Therefore, approximately equal numbers ofPANC-1 and Capan-2 cells were seeded into culture dishes and wereinfected with wild-type and the various RR mutant strains. The totaltiters for each of these infections at 48 h or 72 h post-infection areplotted in FIG. 8B. All strains clearly replicated more poorly onCapan-2 cells compared to the PANC-1 cells. Division of the mean titersobtained in PANC-1 cells by those obtained in Capan-2 cultures for eachvirus gave an estimate of the fold difference in replicationefficiencies of each strain in these cells (FIG. 8C). After 48 h ofinfection the wild-type, ΔI4L, and ΔF4L/ΔJ2R^(HIsF4L) strains had titersthat were 6-8-fold higher in PANC-1 cells than in Capan-2 cells.However, virus strains lacking ΔF4L exhibited greater enhances inreplication with 18-30 fold increases in viral titers in PANC-1 cells.The strain expressing the Y300F substituted F4 clearly benefited themost from replication in PANC-1 cells with a 113-fold increase in titersin PANC-1 cells compared to Capan-2 cells. Results at 72 hpost-infection had similar trends (FIG. 8C). These data suggest that thereplication defect of ΔF4L strains are at least partially rescued inPANC-1 cells. For example, the ΔF4L, and ΔI4L/ΔF4L, and ΔF4L/ΔJ2Rstrains had only ˜3-6-fold lower titers than wild-type virus in PANC-1infections while these same strains had 13-15-fold lower titers thanwild-type in Capan-2 cells (FIG. 8A). The ΔI4L/ΔF4L/6,J2R replicatedmore poorly than other ΔF4L strains (˜16-fold lower titers thanwild-type in PANC-1 cells) suggesting that in the absence of F4 and J2,I4 may provide an important contribution to viral replication.Collectively, these results suggest that the replication defects of theΔF4L and ΔF4L/ΔJ2R^(HisY300FF4L) strains can at least be partiallyrescued in human cancer cell lines over-expressing cellular RR subunits.

VACV nucleotide metabolism genes are required for replication in humanprimary cells in low serum conditions. In order to further test thecorrelation of cellular RR expression and rescue of RR mutant virusreplication, we infected human primary cells with an array of VACVmutants lacking one or more nucleotide metabolism-related genes. Whencells were cultured under high serum conditions, which stimulates cellreplication, most VACV strains productively replicated within 72 h withthe wild-type, ΔI4L, ΔF4L/ΔJ2R^(HisF4L), and ΔJ2R strains allreplicating to similar titers that were ˜10-fold higher than ΔF4Lstrains. The ΔF4L/ΔJ2R^(HisY300FF4L) strain failed to replicate underthese conditions (FIG. 9A). In contrast, under serum starvationconditions in which cells enter quiescence and have limited replication,the wild-type virus replicated to ˜100-fold higher titers than most VACVstrains and to levels similar to that observed in high serum conditions.In fact, ΔF4L and ΔF4L/ΔJ2R^(HisY300FF4L) strains failed to replicate.Furthermore, I4L, ΔF4L/ΔJ2R^(HisF4L), and ΔJ2R strains exhibited adelayed and reduced replication phenotype, yielding only a 10-foldincrease in titers by 72 h post-infection (FIG. 9B). These data indicatethat under high serum conditions ΔF4L strains still exhibit areplication defect but this phenotype is exacerbated when cells arecultured under low serum conditions. Since serum is known to stimulatecell replication and since cellular nucleotide metabolism machinery suchas RR is cell cycle-regulated, we performed western blotting todetermine if levels of cellular RR subunits were different between highand low serum conditions. Both HR1 and HR2, which are expressed in anS-phase-specific manner, were more abundant in high serum conditionscompared to serum starvation treatments. Hp53R2, which is not cellcycle-regulated, was found at similar levels in both serum conditions(FIG. 9C). These results suggest that the rescue of RR mutant virusstrains under high serum conditions correlates with increased abundanceof cellular R1 and R2 subunits and in their absence, these mutantstrains are unable to replicate.

VACV RR subunits are differentially required for pathogenesis in mice.We used an animal model to determine if the apparent differentialrequirement for VACV RR subunits for replication in culture would berecapitulated in vivo. We infected groups of five NMRI mice with equaldoses of wild-type, ΔI4L, ΔF4L, or ΔI4L/ΔF4L strains and tracked changesin animal body weight over 24 days. The wild-type and ΔI4L strainsexhibited a similar degree of virulence, causing the death of 5/5 and4/5 animals, respectively, within seven days of infection. In contrast,both ΔF4L and ΔI4L/ΔF4L strains were highly attenuated, with all animalsdisplaying little to no signs of disease and surviving the infections(FIG. 10A). There were small, transient drops in body weight for animalsinfected with the ΔF4L strain around days 5 and 7, otherwise theseanimals, and those infected with the ΔI4L/ΔF4L strain, showed no obvioussigns of morbidity when compared to the mock-infected control group(FIG. 10A). To obtain a more quantitative measurement of the pathogenicnature of these infections, we isolated lung tissues from mice infectedwith the aforementioned strains on day 5 post-infection. Wild-type andΔI4L strains clearly had a replication advantage over ΔF4L and ΔI4L/ΔF4Lstrains with lung titers approximately 4 logs higher than the latter twostrains (FIG. 10B). These results indicate that VACV RR subunits aredifferentially required for virulence in mice.

Discussion

Contribution of F4 and I4 to vaccinia replication. The observation thatdeletion of F4L is more detrimental to both plaque formation and virusyields than deletion of I4L suggested that F4 is more important for thereplication of vaccinia than I4 (FIG. 2). Early studies of vaccinia RRproteins found that insertional inactivation of I4L in strain WR did notcause observable defects in replication in culture and onlymildly-attenuated these viruses in mouse models with an approximate10-fold increase in lethal dose 50 values for this ΔI4L strain comparedto wild-type virus (6). Another study made a partial deletion of F4L inthe NYCBH vaccinia strain, as well as the Wyeth vaccine strain, in aneffort to obtain alternative vaccine strains with suitable replicationand virulence properties (23). This study found that their F4L mutantreplicated comparable to wild-type virus in cell culture in contrast tothe findings disclosed herein (23). This observation may be in part dueto the high multiplicity of infection (MOI) used in their growthanalyses (i.e. an MOI of 10) since high MOI values would severely limitthe replication of the virus in cell culture and so differences betweena wild-type and mutant strain would be minimized and may go unnoticed.Our lower MOIs (i.e. MOI of 0.03) provide growth analyses that are moresensitive to the detection of mutant strain growth defects because thevirus must undergo multiple rounds of infection and replication and witheach replication cycle defects become exacerbated and easier to detect.Also, as the authors did not provide RT-PCR or western blot data to showthat expression of R2 (F4) is abolished or altered in the virustherefore it cannot be said with certainty that their deletion mutantactually inactivated the R2 (F4L) locus in the virus.

The detailed analysis of the ΔI4L and ΔF4L strains of this disclosuresuggest that ΔF4L strains are likely more attenuated in theirreplication than ΔI4L strains. The observation that the Y300F F4 mutantattenuates VACV replication more severely than deletion of both F4L andI4L (FIG. 2) suggests that it inhibits dNTP production in the cell byforming inactive RR complexes with cellular RR proteins. This predictionis supported by co-immunoprecipitation of Y300F F4 with HR1 (FIG. 5).This result would be predicted to be achieved with any catalyticallyinactivating mutation of F4 that still allows for interaction withcellular RR subunits. For example, substitutions in conserved,catalytically-important residues such as other residues (besides Y300)involved in the radical transport pathway [FIG. 1B; (5)] between smalland large subunits would be expected produce similar phenotypes inF4L-mutant viruses. The increased efficacy of thesecatalytically-inactive R2 subunits which interact with host R1 proteinsto inhibit VACV replication is supported by the observation that theR1BD, which is required for interaction with host R1 (FIG. 7A) is alsorequired for the smaller plaque phenotype of virus encoding the Y300F F4protein (FIG. 7B), compared to ΔF4L.

This may explain why besides Orthopoxviruses and Suipoxviruses, mostother Chordopoxvirus genera contain poxviruses that only encode an R2subunit and not an R1. In fact, recently it was found that horsepoxvirus(an orthopoxvirus) contains a fragmented R1 gene but an intact R2 gene(37). Conservation of viral R2 genes may reflect the differentialregulation of mammalian R2 and R1 protein levels during the cell cyclewith R2 proteins degraded in late S-phase while R1 protein levels remainconstant throughout the cytoplasm (3, 12). Although mammalian cells alsoencode an alternative R2 subunit, p53R2, this subunit is found only atlow levels throughout the cell-cycle (38). Therefore, co-evolution ofpoxviruses with their host may have selected for conservation of R2proteins in order to complex with the relatively abundant cellular R1proteins. The immunoprecipitation (FIGS. 4, 5 & 7) data provide directevidence that viral and cellular RR subunits interact during infection.Furthermore, previous biochemical studies have shown that mouse andvaccinia RR subunits can form functional RR complexes in vitro (7),providing further support to the prediction that poxvirus R2 subunits ingeneral interact and form functional complexes with cellular R1proteins. Based on our findings with VACV, ECTV, MYXV, and SFV R2proteins, it is predicted that other poxvirus R2 proteins will exhibitsimilar functions. The increased hypersensitivity of ΔF4L strains to CDVcompared to ΔI4L strains (Table 2) further suggests that F4 is moreimportant in the establishment of proper dNTP pools to support viralreplication.

Oncolytic potential of RR mutant poxviruses. The rescue effect of humancancers cells over-expressing cellular RR proteins on ΔF4L and Y300FF4-expressing strains (FIG. 8) predicts that any human cancer type withenhanced RR expression will be highly susceptible to treatment with ΔF4Lor Y300F F4-expressing strains. We observed in FIG. 2B that Hp53R2 didnot rescue the ΔF4L phenotype so overexpression of Hp53R2 alone may notbe sufficient to allow for fulminant replication of the ΔF4L strainhowever this was only tested in one cell type. Hp53R2 does not appear toform as active a complex with host R1 proteins as host R2 therefore thismay explain why Hp53R2 overexpression is not sufficient to rescue growthof ΔF4L strains. Because both an R1 and R2 subunit are required for RRactivity, it is predicted that the rescue effect of host RR expressionon ΔF4L strain replication will be dependent upon a subsequent increasein RR activity in the cell. Therefore if a single subunit (i.e. HR2)that is normally limiting to host RR complex formation is over-expressedin cancer tissue then this would likely support mutant virus replicationsince the levels of HR1 are not normally saturated with HR2 in normaltissue. Furthermore, normal human primary cells do not supportproductive replication of ΔF4L strains when in low serum conditions(FIG. 9). Since low serum conditions cause primary cells to arrest inthe cell cycle and enter quiescence, these conditions mimic what wouldbe found in mammalian tissue where most cells are in a highlydifferentiated and quiescent state. These results suggest that ΔF4Lstrains would be highly selective for transformed tissue and would beunable to replicate in normal tissue in vivo. The lack of replication ofΔF4L strains in mice further supports this conclusion (FIG. 10). Otherpoxviruses besides VACV that possess an R2 gene and are able toreplicate in human cancer cells are also predicted to display thisphenotype of dependence upon cellular RR levels in the absence of theviral R2 gene. Several other poxviruses that only encode an R2 subunit(Table 3) have been shown to infect human cancer cells includingAvipoxviruses [e.g. canarypoxvirus; (16, 20)], Leporipoxviruses [e.g.myxoma virus; (35, 41)] and Yatapoxviruses [e.g. Yaba-like diseasevirus; (17)], although only the latter two groups undergo productivereplication, infections of human tumors with non-replicating recombinantcanarypox vectors can be used to deliver foreign genes that elicitstrong anti-tumoral immune responses. Deletion and/or catalyticinactivation of the R2 gene in poxviruses that productively replicate inmammalian cells would be predicted to make these viruses even moreselective for human neoplasms with enhanced RR expression. Theobservation that MYXV and SFV R2 proteins can rescue ΔF4L strainreplication (FIG. 2B) and interact with host R1 proteins (FIG. 5B)support the conclusion that other poxyiral R2 proteins perform a similarrole as VACV F4 and that deletion and/or catalytic inactivation of thesegenes in other poxviruses would be expected to give rise to viruses withsimilar properties as VACV ΔF4L strains (e.g. enhanced oncolysis).Furthermore, our growth analyses and mouse pathogencity data show thatinactivation of both I4L and F4L produces a similar phenotype as a ΔF4Lstrain, strengthening the argument that it is poxvirus R2 genes that arethe critical determinants of replication efficiencies and not poxvirusR1 genes.

Susceptibility of human cancer types to RR mutant oncolytic poxviruses.A wide variety of human cancer cell lines and clinical isolates havebeen shown to display either elevated RR mRNA or protein levels (seeTable 4 for examples and references), suggesting that F4L mutant strainssuch as ΔF4L and Y300F F4-expressing strains may be useful in thetreatment of a broad range of human tumor types. These tumor typesinclude but are not limited to breast, pancreatic, colorectal, hepatic,esophageal and skin. Furthermore, HU is widely used to treat leukemia,ovarian cancers, and head and neck cancers (25, 31, 42), suggesting thatthese tumor types also exhibit elevated RR activity and would beamendable to treatment with the aforementioned oncolytic poxviruses. Infact, prolonged treatment of patients with RR inhibitors such asgemcitabine can lead to drug resistance often a result of HR2 geneamplification and subsequent over-expression of HR2 (28, 34, 42).Therefore, F4L mutant strains such as the ΔF4L and Y300F F4-expressingstrains could form a logical component of combined therapy wherebypatients are first treated with HU (or gemcitabine) followed bytreatment with one of these oncolytic VACV strains to target remainingdrug-resistant tumor tissue. Indeed combination therapy of RR inhibitorsand other oncolytic viruses have had promising results (2, 40)supporting the efficacy of combining RR inhibitors with F4L mutantstrains, such as the ΔF4L and Y300F F4-expressing strains. With thedevelopment of rapid RT-PCR and automated quantitative analysis for thedetection of increased cellular RR expression in human cancers, patientbiopsies could potentially be pre-screened to determine if a particulartumor tissue may respond well to oncolytic treatment (22). Therefore,poxvirus RR mutant viruses are predicted to highly effective oncolyticagents in a broad range of human cancer types.

Materials and Methods

Cell and virus culture. Cell and virus culture methods have beendescribed elsewhere (1). Wild-type vaccinia virus (VACV) and its mutantderivatives were derived from a stock of VACV (strain WR) originallyacquired from the American Type Culture Collection (ATCC).Non-transformed African Green Monkey kidney cells (BSC-40) were normallycultured in modified Eagle's medium (MEM) supplemented with 5% fetalbovine serum (FBS). HeLa human cervical adenocarcinoma cells werecultured in Dulbecos MEM (DMEM) supplemented with 10% FBS. Panc-1 andCapan-2 cells are human pancreatic epithelioid carcinoma andadenocarcinoma lines, respectively and were also cultured in DMEMsupplemented with 10% FBS. All cell lines were originally obtained fromATCC. Cells were cultured in Opti-MEM media (Invitrogen) in experimentsrequiring transfections. All the cells disclosed herein tested negativefor mycoplasma.

Materials. Cidofovir[(S)-1-(3-hydroxy-2-phosphonylmethoxypropyl)cytosine (HPMPC)] wasobtained from Gilead Sciences (Foster City, Calif.). Hydroxyurea (HU)was obtained from Alfa Aesar (Ward Hill, Mass.). X-gal and X-glusubstrates were obtained from Sigma Chemical Co. (St. Louis, Mo.) andClontech (Palo Alto, Calif.), respectively. Mycophenolic acid (MPA) andXanthine were obtained from Sigma Chemical Co. Hypoxanthine was obtainedfrom ICN Biomedicals, Inc. (Aurora, Ohio). Compounds were diluted totheir final concentration in MEM (Cidofovir; HU) or in a 1:1 mixture ofMEM and 1.7% noble agar (X-gal; X-glu) immediately prior to use. Taq andPfuUltra™ DNA polymerases were obtained from Fermentas (Burlington, ON)and Stratagene (La Jolla, Calif.), respectively.

Antibodies, western blotting, and immunoprecipitation. Normal goat serumand goat polyclonal antibodies against human R1 (HR1), human R2 (HR2),and Human p53R2 (Hp53R2) were from Santa Cruz Biotechnology, Inc. (SantaCruz, Calif.). Mouse monoclonal antibodies against HR1 and HR2 were fromMillipore (Billerica, Mass.) and Santa Cruz Biotechnology, Inc.,respectively. Mouse monoclonal antibodies against Flag and His_(s)epitopes were from Sigma and Roche (Mississauga, ON), respectively.Rabbit anti-Flag epitope polyclonal antibodies were obtained from Sigma.A mouse monoclonal antibody against recombinant ectromelia virus R2antigen was developed and the resulting antibody also recognizes VACVF4, and was used for western-blotting (described below). A rabbitanti-I4 polyclonal antibody was obtained from Dr. C. Mathews (OregonState University). Although this antibody recognizes VACV I4, it alsocross-reacts with HR1 on western blots. The mouse monoclonal antibodyagainst VACV 13 has been described (24) and the mouse monoclonalantibody against cellular actin was from Sigma.

Protein extracts for western blots and immunoprecipitations wereprepared from cell cultures by lysing cells on ice in a buffercontaining 150 mM NaCl, 20 mM Tris (pH 8.0), 1 mM EDTA, and 0.5% NP-40along with freshly-added phenylmethylsulfonyl fluoride (100 μg/mL) andprotease inhibitor tablets (Roche;). Cellular debris was removed fromsamples after 1 h of lysis by centrifugation (10,000 rpm, 10 min, 4°C.). For western blots, 20-40 μg of total protein was subjected to 8%SDS-PAGE and subsequently transferred to nitrocellulose membranes. Thesemembranes were then blocked for 1 h at room temperature (RT) in Odysseyblocking buffer (Li-COR Biosciences; Lincoln, Neb.), after which theywere incubated with the appropriate primary antibody for 1 h at RTdiluted in blocking buffer. After the 1 h incubation, membranes werewashed three times in PBS containing 0.1% Tween (PBS-T). The membraneswere then incubated with appropriate secondary antibodies (Li-CORBiosciences) for 1 h at RT after which membranes were washed three timesin PBS-T, once in PBS and scanned using an Odyssey scanner (Li-CORBiosciences).

Protein extracts for immunoprecipitations were routinely recovered asdescribed above 6-8 h post-infection in HeLa cells (10⁷) infected withindicated strains at an MOI of 10. These extracts were then pre-clearedby incubation with protein G sepharose beads (GE Healthcare LifeSciences; Piscataway, N.J.) for 30 min at 4° C. with constant inversion.The samples were subsequently centrifuged (2,500 rpm, 1 min, 4° C.) andsupernatants were transferred to fresh tubes and the extracts wereincubated with the appropriate primary antibody overnight at 4° C. withconstant inversion. Protein G beads were then added to the extracts andincubated for 2 h at 4° C. after which the beads were spun down (2,500rpm, 1 min, 4° C.) and washed four times with lysis buffer. Theresulting bead-protein complexes were resuspended in SDS-PAGE loadingbuffer, boiled for 15 min and loaded onto SDS gels. Western transfer andblotting was then performed as described above with the indicatedantibodies.

Plaque morphology and replication analyses. Plaque morphology analysiswas conducted on 60 mm-diameter dishes of confluent BSC-40 cellsinfected with ˜100 plaque-forming units (PFU) of the indicated strain.After 48 h of infection, triplicate plates were stained with crystalviolet and the plates were scanned using an HP ScanJet 6300C scanner.Resulting image files were subjected to plaque area analysis usingImageJ v1.04 g software (National Institutes of Health, USA). Unpairedstudent t-tests were performed on mean plaque areas between wild-typeand each of the various RR mutant strains using GraphPad Prism (SanDiego, Calif.) software (version 4.0). In some cases two different RRmutant strains were also compared for differences in mean plaque areas.A p-value of <0.05 was considered to be statistically significant.Growth analyses were conducted in BSC-40, HeLa, PANC-1 and Capan-2 cellcultures using the indicated MOIs and strains. Cells were harvested byscraping monolayers into the culture media at the indicated time pointswith three rounds of subsequent freeze-thawing to release virus. Virusstocks were titered on confluent monolayers of BSC-40 cells infected for48 h and then stained with crystal violet. For PANC-1 and Capan-2experiments, the mean virus yields of each virus from PANC-1 weredivided by the mean yields obtained from Capan-2 cultures to obtain aratio representing the fold-increase in replicative capacity of eachstrain in PANC-1 cells compared to Capan-2 cells. For viral genomereplication analyses, at the indicated times, total DNA was extractedfrom BSC-40 cells infected with wild-type or ΔF4L viruses at an MOI of2. In some cases cultures contained 0.5 mM HU in the media which wasadded 1 h post-infection. The extracted DNA was spotted onto Zetaprobemembrane using a vacuum-based slot-blot apparatus (BioRad) and the virusDNA was detected by hybridization to a ³²P-labeled E9L gene probe. The³²P label was detected using a Typhoon 8600 phosphorimager and processedusing ImageQuant (24).

Plaque-reduction assays. Plaque-reduction assays using cidofovir (CDV)were performed as previously described (1). Briefly, 60 mm-diameterdishes of confluent BSC-40 cells were inoculated with ˜200 PFU of theindicated virus strains, and 1 h after infection either drug-free mediaor media containing the indicated doses of CDV was added to the culturesand the plates were incubated at 37° C. for 48 h. Plates were thenstained with crystal violet to visualize and count plaques. Mean EC₅₀values and their 95% confidence intervals (CI) were calculated usingGraphPad Prism software. In cases where the 95% CIs of two differentEC₅₀ values did not overlap, these two EC₅₀ values were considered to bestatistically significant (p<0.05).

Confocal microscopy. HeLa cells were grown on coverslips in 24-wellplates and infected with the indicated virus strains at a MOI of 5 for10 h. The cells were fixed for 30 min on ice with 4% paraformaldehyde inPBS. The fixed cells were blocked and permeabilized for 1 h at RT in PBScontaining 0.1% Tween (PBS-T) as well as 10% BSA. The coverslips werethen incubated with the primary antibodies diluted in PBS-T (1% BSA) for2 h at RT, washed three times and then incubated with secondaryantibodies conjugated to Alexa 488 or 594 (Invitrogen) for 1 h at RT.The cells were then counterstained with 10 ng/mL4′,6′-diamidino-2-phenylindole (DAPI) in PBS-T for 15 min. The specimenswere examined using a Zeiss 710 Laser-Scanning confocal microscopeequipped with DAPI, Alexa 488, and Alexa 594 filters. Images werecaptured and processed using ZEN 2009 software and Adobe Photoshop(version 10.0.1).

Animal studies. Female NMRI mice, 3 to 4 weeks of age, were obtainedfrom Charles River Laboratories (Brussels, Belgium). Mice were utilizedat 5 mice per infection or control group for morbidity studies. Micewere anesthetized using ketamine-xylazine and inoculated intranasally(or mock-inoculated) with 4×10⁴ PFU of virus diluted in 30 μL of saline.Animal body weights were recorded over the next 24 days or until theanimals had to be euthanized because of more than 30% loss in bodyweight. To determine viral titers in lungs, two (wild-type infections)or five animals (ΔI4L, ΔF4L, and ΔI4L/ΔF4L infections) were euthanizedon day 5. Lung samples were removed aseptically, weighed, homogenized inMEM, and frozen at −70° C. until assayed by titrations on HEL cells.

Plasmid construction and marker-rescue. BSC-40 cells were grown toconfluence and then infected for 1 h with the appropriate VACV strain(see below) at a MOI of 2 in 0.5 mL of Phosphate-buffered saline (PBS).The cells were then transfected with 2 μg of appropriate plasmid DNAusing Lipofectamine 2000 (Invitrogen). The cells were returned to theincubator for another 5 h, the transfection solution was replaced with 5mL of fresh growth medium, and the cells were cultured for 24-48 h at37° C. Virus progeny were released by freeze-thawing, and the virustiter was determined on BSC-40 cells. These resulting “marker-rescue”stocks were then re-plated in serial dilutions onto fresh BSC-40monolayers. These virus cultures were then subjected to either visualselection of plaques (i.e. using X-gal or X-glu) or drug selection (i.e.using MPA). X-gal and X-glu were used at final concentration of 0.4mg/mL in solid growth media overlays. Xanthine (250 μg/mL) andhypoxanthine (15 μg/mL) were used to supplement a working stock of MPA(25 μg/mL) for selections of yfp-gpt-encoding strains. Theyfp-gpt-encoding strains encode a fusion protein between YFP (aderivative of GFP) and E. coli xanthine guaninephosphoribosyltransferase (GPT) that allows for either visual (YFP) ormycohpenolic acid-based selection. All strains were plaque-purified inBSC-40 cells a minimum of three times and amplified in the absence ofdrug treatment to obtain final, working stocks. Confirmation of rescueof markers and subsequent deletion/disruption of endogenous VACV genomicsequence was confirmed by PCR analysis of total DNA extracted frominfected BSC-40 cells. In some cases western-blotting was used toconfirm the presence or absence of gene expression in the described VACVstrains. Details of how each recombinant VACV strain are provided below.

ΔF4L virus construction. The plasmid pZIPPY-NEO/GUS (11) was used toclone an ˜500 bp PCR product containing sequences flanking the “F5L”side of the F4L locus (primers: 5′-ACTAGTTAGATAAATGGAAATATCTT-3′ [SEQ IDNO: 2] & 5′-AAGCTTTCAGTTATCTATATGCCTGT [SEQ ID NO: 3]) as well as an˜520 bp PCR product containing sequences flanking the “F3L” side of theF4L locus as well as the last 30 bp of the F4L ORF (primers:5′-CCGCGGAATCATTTTTCTTTAGATGT-3′ [SEQ ID NO: 4] &5′-AGATCTTATGATGTCATCTTCCAGTT-3′ [SEQ ID NO: 5]). The 500 bp PCRfragment was cloned into pZIPPY-NEO/GUS using SpeI and Hind IIIrestriction sites and the 520 bp PCR fragment was cloned into theresulting vector using SacII and BglII restriction sites. These regionsof homology were sequenced to ensure fidelity of PCR and cloningreactions. Rescue of this vector (now called pZIPPY-F5L^(H)-F3L^(H))into WR leads to the deletion of nucleotides (nts) 33948-32987 in the WRgenome (Genbank accession: NC_006998, herein incorporated by reference)comprising 31 nts in the intergenic region between F5L and F4L ORFs andthe first 930 nts of the 960 bp F4L ORF. The last 30 bp of the F4L ORFwere maintained in order to maintain the endogenous transcriptiontermination signal for F5 expression contained at the 3′ end of the F4LORF (29). This region is replaced by a p7.5-promoted neomycin resistance(neo) gene as well as a gusA gene under the control of a modified H5promoter (11). To generate the ΔF4L strain, pZIPPY-F5L^(H)+F3L^(H) DNA(˜2 μg) transfected into wild-type (strain WR) VACV-infected (MOI=2)BSC-40 cells. After 24 h of replication cells were harvested for virus,freeze-thawed three times and virus stocks were re-plated at multipledilutions onto fresh BSC-40 cells overlaid with solid growth media.After 48-72 h of replication dishes were overlaid with a second layer ofsolid growth media containing 0.4 mg/mL X-glu. Blue plaques wereisolated are re-plated in a similar manner such that ΔF4L virus had gonethrough four rounds of plaque-purification. Final isolates wereamplified in BSC-40 cells and the absence of F4L coding sequence wasconfirmed by PCR (FIG. 1C). Absence of expression of F4 was alsoconfirmed using western blotting with a mouse monoclonal antibodyrecognizing F4 (FIG. 1D).

ΔI4L & ΔI4L/ΔF4L virus construction. The plasmid pZIPPY-NEO/GUS (11) wasused to clone an ˜430 bp PCR product containing sequences flanking the“15L” side of the I4L locus (primers:5′-ACTAGTGGAAGGGTATCTATACTTATAGAATAATC-3′ [SEQ ID NO: 6] &5′-GTCGACTTTTGTTGGTGTAATAAAAAAATTATTTAAC-3′ [SEQ ID NO: 7]) as well asan ˜340 bp PCR product containing sequences flanking the “I3L” side ofthe I4L locus (primers: 5′-CCGCGGGGTTAAACAAAAACATTTTTATTCTC-3′ [SEQ IDNO: 8] & 5′-AGATCTGTTTAGTCTCTCCTTCCAAC-3′ [SEQ ID NO: 9]). The 430 bpPCR fragment was cloned into pZIPPY-NEO/GUS using SpeI and SalIrestriction sites and the 340 bp PCR fragment was cloned into theresulting vector using SacII and BglII restriction sites. These regionsof homology were also cloned into a separate vector, pDGIoxPKO using thesame restriction sites as with cloning into pZIPPY-NEO/GUS. Theseregions of homology were sequenced to ensure fidelity of PCR and cloningreactions. Rescue of the first vector (now calledpZIPPY-15L^(H)+I3L^(H)) or the second (now calledpDGIoxPKO-I5L^(H)+I3L^(H)) into WR leads to the deletion of nts61929-64240 in the WR genome. The first vector (pZIPPY-I5L^(H)+I3L^(H))replaces the deleted region with a p7.5-promoted neo gene as well as agusA gene under the control of a modified H5 promoter (11). This vectorwas used to generate the ΔI4L strain. The second vector(pDGIoxPKO-I5L^(H)+I3L^(H)) replaces the deleted region with a yfp-gptfusion gene promoted by a synthetic early/late pox promoter. This vectorwas used to generate the ΔI4LIΔF4L strain by rescue of this vector intoa ΔF4L background. Viruses were isolated after transfection ofappropriate vectors and selection using either X-glu (for ΔI4L strain)or 25 μg/mL mycophenolic acid (for ΔI4LIΔF4L strain) in BSC-40 cellculture. All isolates were plaque-purified a minimum of three times.Deletion of the I4L locus and loss of I4 expression was confirmed by PCR(FIG. 10) and western-blotting (FIG. 1D), respectively.

ΔI4L/ΔF4L/ΔJ2R, ΔF4L/ΔJ2R, ΔJ2R, ΔF4L/ΔJ2R^(HisF4L),ΔF4L/ΔJ2R^(HisY300FF4L), ΔI4L/ΔJ2R^(FlagI4L), ΔJ2R^(FlagHR1), &ΔJ2R^(HisHp53R2) virus construction. The plasmid pSC66 (39), aderivative of the vaccinia transfer vector pSC65 (4) was used togenerate inactivating mutations into the J2R (thymidine kinase; TK)locus as well as to introduce foreign genes into the J2R locus forexpression under the control of a synthetic early/late poxvirus promoter(see below). This vector contains regions of homology flanking both leftand right sides of the J2R ORF and creates a disruption in the J2R ORFsuch that an insertion is made in between nucleotides 81001 and 81002 inthe WR genome. This ˜4 kb insertion encodes a lacZ gene under thecontrol of a p7.5 poxvirus promoter as well as introduces a second,early/late synthetic poxvirus promoter that initiates transcription inthe opposite direction of the p7.5-lacZ cassette (4). A multiple cloningsite downstream of the synthetic promoter allows for the insertion offoreign ORFs to be expressed (4). Transfection of pSC66 DNA intoΔI4L/ΔF4L, ΔF4L, or wild-type VACV-infected BSC-40 cells and subsequentselection of blue plaques (in the presence of X-gal in solid growthmedia) allowed for the creation of VACV strains ΔI4L/ΔF4L/ΔJ2R,ΔF4L/ΔJ2R, and ΔJ2R, respectively. Disruption of the J2R locus wasconfirmed by PCR analysis (FIG. 1C and data not shown). Primers5′-AAGCTTATGCATCACCATCACCATCACATGGAACCCATCCTTGCACC-3′ [SEQ ID NO: 10]&5′-GCGGCCGCTTAAAAGTCAACATCTAAAG-3′ [SEQ ID NO: 11] were used to PCRamplify and clone a His₆(His)-tagged F4L ORF into pCR2.1 (Invitrogen). AKpnI/NotI restriction fragment was then isolated from this plasmid andcloned into the KpnI/NotI restriction sites of pSC66 (generatingpSC66^(HisF4L)) for expression under the synthetic early/late promoter.Rescue of pSC66^(HisF4L) into the ΔF4L background generated strainΔF4L/ΔJ2R^(HisF4L). Site-directed mutagenesis using primers5′-CGAAAAACGTGTGGGTGAATTCCAAAAAATGGGAGTTATGTC-3′ [SEQ ID NO: 12] &5′-GACATAACTCCCATTTTTTGGAATTCACCCACACGTTTTTCG-3′ [SEQ ID NO: 13] wasperformed with a QuickChange® II XL-kit (Stratagene) to generate aHis₆-tagged F4L ORF encoding the Y300F substitution (creatingpSC66^(HisY300FF4L)). Rescue of pSC66^(HisY300FF4L) into the ΔF4Lbackground generated strain ΔF4L/ΔJ2R^(HIsY300FF4L). Primers5′-GTCGACATGGACTACAAGGACGACGATGACAAG-3′ [SEQ ID NO: 14] &5′-GCGGCCGCTTAACCACTGCATGATGTACAGATTTCGG-3′ [SEQ ID NO: 15] were used toPCR amplify a Flag-tagged I4L ORF from a pCR2.1 vector containing aFlag-tagged I4L ORF insert previously generated using primers5′-AAGCTTATGGACTACAAGGACGACGATGACAAGATGTTTGTCATTAAACG AAATG-3′ [SEQ IDNO: 16] & 5′-GCGGCCGCTTAACCACTGCATGATGTACAGATTTCGG-3′ [SEQ ID NO: 17].The resulting PCR fragment was sub-cloned into pCR2.1 and a SalI/NotIrestriction fragment was cloned into the SalI/Nott sites of pSC66(generating pSC66^(FlagI4L)). Rescue of pSC66^(FlagI4L) into the ΔI4Lbackground generated strain ΔI4L/ΔJ2R^(FlagI4L). Primers5′-GTCGACATGGACTACAAGGACGACGATGACAAG-3′ [SEQ ID NO: 18] &5′-GCGGCCGCTCAGGATCCACACATCAGACATTC-3′ [SEQ ID NO: 19] were used to PCRamplify a Flag-tagged HR1 ORF from a pCR2.1 vector containing aFlag-tagged HR1ORF insert previously generated using primers5′-CCAGTGTGGTGGATGGACTACAAGGACGACGATGACAAGATGCATGTGA TCAAGCGAGATG-3′[SEQ ID NO: 20] & 5′-GCGGCCGCTCAGGATCCACACATCAGACATTC-3′ [SEQ ID NO: 21]and HR1 cDNA (Invitrogen). The resulting PCR fragment was sub-clonedinto pCR2.1 and a SalI/NotI restriction fragment was cloned into theSalI/NotI sites of pSC66 (generating pSC66^(FlagHR1)). Rescue ofpSC66^(FlagHR1) into the wild-type background generated strainΔJ2R^(FlagHR1). Primers5′-GGATCCATGCATCACCATCACCATCACATGGGGGACCCGGAAAGGCCG-3′ [SEQ ID NO: 22] &5′-GCGGCCGCTTAAAAATCTGCATCCAAGG-3′ [SEQ ID NO: 23] were used to PCRamplify a His₆-tagged Hp53R2 ORF from Hp53R2 cDNA (Genecopeia Inc.;Germantown, Md.). The resulting PCR fragment was sub-cloned into pCR2.1and a KpnI/NotI restriction fragment was cloned into the KpnI/NotIrestriction sites of pSC66 (generating pSC66^(HisHp53R2)) Rescue ofpSC66^(HisHp53R2) into the wild-type background generated strainΔJ2R^(HisHp53R2).

TABLE 1 Major VACV strains used in this study. J2R Strain¹ I4L locus²F4L locus² locus² Wild-type (WR) + + + ΔI4L −(neo; gusA) + + ΔF4L +−(neo; gusA) + ΔJ2R + + −(lacZ) ΔI4L/ΔF4L −(yfp-gpt) −(neo; gusA) +ΔI4L/ΔF4L/ΔJ2R −(yfp-gpt) −(neo; gusA) −(lacZ) ΔF4L/ΔJ2R + −(neo; gusA)−(lacZ) ΔF4L/ΔJ2R^(HisF4L) + −(neo; gusA) −(lacZ; HisF4L)ΔF4L/ΔJ2R^(HisY300FF4L) + −(neo; gusA) −(lacZ; HisY300FF4L)ΔI4L/ΔF4L/ΔJ2R^(HisF4L) −(yfp-gpt) −(neo; gusA) −(lacZ; HisF4L)ΔI4L/ΔF4L/ΔJ2R^(HisY300FF4L) −(yfp-gpt) −(neo; gusA) −(lacZ;HisY300FF4L) ΔF4L/ΔJ2R^(HisF4LΔR1BD) + −(neo; gusA) −(lacZ; HisF4LΔR1BD)ΔF4L/ΔJ2R^(HisY300FF4LΔR1BD) + −(neo; gusA) −(lacZ; HisY300FF4LΔR1BD)ΔF4L/ΔJ2R^(HisECTVR2) + −(neo; gusA) −(lacZ; HisECTVR2)ΔF4L/ΔJ2R^(HisMYXR2) + −(neo; gusA) −(lacZ; HisMYXR2)ΔF4L/ΔJ2R^(HisSFVR2) + −(neo; gusA) −(lacZ; HisSFVR2)ΔI4L/ΔJ2R^(FlagI4L) −(neo; gusA) + −(lacZ; HisSFVR2) ΔJ2R^(FlagHR1) + +−(lacZ; FlagHR1) ΔJ2R^(HisH)P^(53R2) + + −(lacZ; HisHp53R2)ΔF4L/ΔJ2R^(HisHp53R2) + −(neo; gusA) −(lacZ; HisHp53R2) ¹All strainswere generated in the Western Reserve (WR) strain of VACV. ²“+”indicates locus is intact and “−” indicates locus is disrupted. Markergenes and inserted viral or human genes present at disrupted loci are inparentheses. Abbreviations: His, His₆ epitope tag; Flag, Flag epitopetag; R1BD, R1-binding domain; VACV, vaccinia virus; ECTV, ectromeliavirus; MYX, myxoma virus; SFV, Shope fibroma virus; HR1, human R1;Hp53R2, human p53R2. See Materials and Methods for further details.

TABLE 2 Susceptibility of VACV RR mutant strains to cidofovir (CDV),hydroxyurea (HU) and phosphonoacetic acid (PAA). Mean EC₅₀ of CompoundFold Fold PAA Fold Virus CDV (μM)¹ Change² HU (mM)¹ Change² (μg/mL)¹Change² Wild-type  42.0 (36.2-48.7) 1.0 0.87 (0.72-1.06) 1.0 50.5 1.0(41.9-61.0) ΔI4L  25.1 (22.0-28.7) 1.7 0.19 (0.15-0.24) 4.6 55.6 1.1(44.9-68.9) ΔF4L 6.2 (5.5-7.0) 6.8 0.05 (0.04-0.06) 17.4 56.6 1.1(49.4-64.9) ΔI4L/ΔF4L 6.8 (5.4-8.5) 6.2 0.05 (0.04-0.06) 17.4 54.7 1.1(48.3-62.1) ΔI4L/ΔF4L/ΔJ2R 7.6 (6.7-8.5) 5.5 0.05 (0.05-0.06) 17.4 47.41.1 (39.7-56.6) ΔF4L/ΔJ2R 8.1 (6.6-9.9) 5.2 0.07 (0.06-0.08) 12.4 49.01.0 (40.9-58.6) ΔF4L/ΔJ2R^(HisF4L)  41.2 (35.9-47.1) 1.0 0.68(0.50-0.91) 1.3 46.8 1.1 (38.3-57.1) ΔF4L/ΔJ2R^(HisY300FF4L) 3.5(3.0-4.2) 12 0.03 (0.03-0.03) 29 44.9 1.1 (39.0-51.8) ¹Values inparentheses represent 95% confidence intervals. ²Compared to mean EC₅₀of wild-type virus. Bold values indicate statistically significant (P <0.05) differences from wild-type values.

TABLE 3 Differential conservation of Chordopoxirinae RR genes. Genus R1R2 TK Example Species³ Orthopoxvirus +¹ + + VACV HSPV TATV VARVSuipoxvirus + + + SPXV Yatapoxvirus − + + TANV YLDV Leporipoxvirus − + +MYXV SFV Capripoxvirus − + + GTPV SPPV LSDV Cervidpoxvirus − + + DPVAvipoxvirus − +² + FPV CNPV Molluscipoxvirus − − − MCV Parapoxvirus − −− ORFV Unclassified − − − CRV ¹SPV contains a fragmented R1 gene. ²FPVcontains a fragmented R2 gene. “+” Indicates presence and “−” indicatesabsence of indicated ribonucleotide reductase (RR) or thymidine kinase(TK) genes in viral genomes. ³Example species of indicated genera aregiven. Abbreviations: VACV, vaccinia virus; HSPV, horsepox virus; TATV,taterapox virus; VARV, variola virus; SPXV, swinepox virus; tanapoxvirus; yaba-like disease virus; MYXV, myxoma virus; SFV, Shope fibromavirus; GTPV, goatpox virus; SPPV, sheeppox virus; LSDV, lumpy skindisease virus; DPV, deerpox virus; FPV, fowlpox virus; CNPV, canarypoxvirus; MCV, molluscum contagiosum; ORFV, orf virus; CRV, crocodilepoxvirus.

TABLE 4 List of cancer types that over-express RR proteins.Over-expressed Cell Line (or Cancer Type Subunit Clinical Isolate)Reference Breast Cancer RR2 MCF7, T47D, MDA-231 (44) Hepatocellular RR1,RR2 Clinical Isolate (36) carcinoma Pancreatic RR2 PANC-1, CAPAN-2 (9,10) cancer Melanoma RR2 Clinical Isolate (22) Esophageal and RR2Clinical Isolate (22) gastric

TABLE 5 List of sequences. SEQ ID NO: Gene Sequence 1Ribonucleotide reductase MEPILAPNPNRFVIFPIQYYDIWNMYKKAEASFWTVEKVsmall subunit (Vaccinia DISKDINDWNKLTPDEKYFIKHVLAFFAASDvirus WR) Genbank accession GIVNENLAERFCTEVQITEARCFYGFQMAIENIHSEMYSnumber LLIDTYVKDSNEKNYLFNAIETMPCVKKKAD AAO89322WAQKWIHIDSAGYGERLIAFAAVEGIFFSGSFASIFWLKK RGLMPGLTFSNELISRDEGLHCDFACLMFKHLLHPPSEETVRSIITDAVSIEQEFLTAALPVKLIGMNCE MMKTYIEFVADRLISELGFKKIYNVTNPFDFMENISLEGKTNFFEKRVGEYQKMGVMSQEDNHFSLDVDF 2 Forward primer for5′-ACTAGTTAGATAAATGGAAATATCTT-3′ sequences flanking the “F5L”side of the F4L locus 3 Reverse primer for5′-AAGCTTTCAGTTATCTATATGCCTGT-3′ sequences flanking the “F5L”side of the F4L locus 4 Forward primer for5′-CCGCGGAATCATTTTTCTTTAGATGT-3′ sequences flanking the “F3L”side of the F4L locus as well as the last 30 bp of the F4L ORF 5Reverse primer for 5′-AGATCTTATGATGTCATCTTCCAGTT-3′sequences flanking the “F3L” side of the F4L locusas well as the last 30 bp of the F4L ORF 6 Forward primer for5′-ACTAGTGGAAGGGTATCTATACTTATAGAA sequences flanking the TAATC-3′ “I5L”side of the I4L locus 7 Reverse primer for5′-GTCGACTTTTGTTGGTOTAATAAAAAAATTA sequences flanking the TTTAAC-3′“I5L” side of the I4L locus 8 Forward primer for5′-CCGCGGGGTTAAACAAAAACATTTTTATTCTC-3′ sequences flanking the “I3L”side of the I4L locus 9 Reverse primer for5′-AGATCTGTTTAGTCTCTCCTTCCAAC-3′ sequences flanking the “I3L”side of the I4L locus 10 Forward primer for His₆-5′-AAGCTTATGCATCACCATCACCATCACATO tagged F4L ORF GAACCCATCCTTGCACC-3′ 11Reverse primer for His₆- 5′-GCGGCCGCTTAAAAGTCAACATCTAAAG-3′tagged F4L ORF 12 Forward primer for 5′-CGAAAAACGTGTGGGTGAATTCCAAAAAATgenerating His₆-tagged F4L GGGAGTTATGTC-3′ ORF encoding the Y300Fsubstitution 13 Reverse primer for 5′-GACATAACTCCCATTTTTTGGAATTCACCCgenerating His,-tagged F4L ACACGTTTTTCG-3′ ORF encoding the Y300Fsubstitution 14 Forward primer for PCR 5′-GTCGACATOGACTACAAGGACOACGATOamplification of a Flag- ACAAG-3′ tagged I4L ORF from apCR2.1 vector containing a Flag-tagged I4L ORF insert 15Reverse primer for PCR 5′-GCGGCCGCTTAACCACTGCATGATGTACAamplification of a Flag- GATTTCGG-3′ tagged I4L ORF from apCR2.1 vector containing a Flag-tagged I4L ORF insert 16Forward primer for 5′-AAGCTTATGGACTACAAGGACGACGAgenerating a Flag-tagged TGACAAGATGTTTGTCATTAAACGAAATG-3′I4L ORF insert for pCR2.1 vector 17 Reverse primer for5′-GCGGCCGCTTAACCACTGCATGATGTA generating a Flag-tagged CAGATTTCGG-3′I4L ORF insert for pCR2.1 vector 18 Forward primer for PCR5′-GTCGACATGGACTACAAGGACGACGAT amplification of a Flag- GACAAG-3′tagged HR1 ORF from a pCR2.1 vector containing aFlag-tagged HR1 ORF insert 19 Reverse primer for PCR5′-GCGGCCGCTCAGGATCCACACATCAGA amplification of a Flag- CATTC-3′tagged HR1 ORF from a pCR2.1 vector containing aFlag-tagged HR1 ORF insert 20 Forward primer for5′-CCAGTGTGGTGGATGGACTACAAGGACG generating a Flag-taggedACGATGACAAGATGCATGTGATCAAGCGAGATG-3′ HR1 ORF insert for pCR2.1 vector 21Reverse primer for 5′-GCGGCCGCTCAGGATCCACACATCAGAgenerating a Flag-tagged CATTC-3′ HR1 ORF insert for pCR2.1 vector 22Forward primer for His₆- 5′-GGATCCATGCATCACCATCACCATCACATGGtagged Hp53R2 ORF from GGGACCCGGAAAGGCCG-3′ Hp53R2 cDNA 23Reverse primer for His₆- 5′-GCGGCCGCTTAAAAATCTGCATCCAAGG-3′tagged Hp53R2 ORF from Hp53R2 cDNA

Example 2

Mouse monoclonal anti-VACV F4 antibody. Mouse monoclonal antibodies weregenerated by using full-length ectromelia virus R2 protein with aC-terminal His₆ tag as the antigen.

To produce monoclonal antibodies, antibody producing cells (lymphocytes)can be harvested from an immunized animal and fused with myeloma cellsby standard somatic cell fusion procedures thus immortalizing thesecells and yielding hybridoma cells. Such techniques are well known inthe art, (e.g. the hybridoma technique originally developed by Kohlerand Milstein (Nature 256:495-497 (1975)) as well as other techniquessuch as the human B-cell hybridoma technique (Kozbor et al., Immunol.Today 4:72 (1983)), the EBV-hybridoma technique to produce humanmonoclonal antibodies (Cole et al., Methods Enzymol, 121:140-67 (1986)),and screening of combinatorial antibody libraries (Huse et al., Science246:1275 (1989)). Hybridoma cells can be screened immunochemically forproduction of antibodies specifically reactive with the peptide and themonoclonal antibodies can be isolated. Since ectromelia R2 proteinis >98% identical to VACV F4 protein, the resulting antibody alsorecognizes VACV F4. This antibody is suitable for western blotting,immunoprecipitation and immunofluorescence.

Example 3

In vitro studies. In vitro (i.e. in cell culture) replication of RRmutant strains is being assessed in various human cancer cell lines thatare used as models for the study of a variety of tumor types including,but not limited to, gliomas (eg. U118 and U87 cell lines), breastcancers (eg. MCF7 and T47D cell lines), and heptaocellular carcionmas(eg. Hep3B). Many of these cell lines are known to over-express cellularRR components (see Table 4) and the expression levels of cellular RRcomponents are being assessed by Western-blotting and compared tonon-transformed cell lines of a similar tissue type when possible.

Example 4

In vivo human tumor model studies. To correlate observations made fromin vitro studies, human tumor models are being established in nude mice.PANC-1 (18, 26) and MDA-231 (32) cell lines have previously been used toestablish human tumors in nude mice and these studies assess the abilityof various RR mutant strains to infect and destroy tumor tissue in theseanimals. The selectivity of these mutant strains for tumor tissue overnormal mouse tissue is also being assessed.

Example 5

Derivation of RR deletions/mutations in other vaccinia strains. Themutant RR strains described in this disclosure thus far have beengenerated in the WR strain of vaccinia. This strain is neurovirulent andhighly pathogenic in mice and would likely be an unsuitable backgroundfor the development of mutant RR strains for use in human oncolyticvirotherapy. Therefore, the various I4L, F4L and J2R deletions/mutationsare being developed in the genome of the Chinese vaccination strain ofvaccinia, Tian Tian [(19); Genbank accession: AF095689, hereinincorporated by reference] which is likely to be a more suitablebackground for clinical treatments. The Tian Tian strain is attenuatedin virulence compared to strain WR and was routinely used to vaccinateindividuals in China before the cessation of smallpox vaccination in1980 (15). Therefore, it is predicted that the Tian Tian strain will bea more suitable background in terms of clinical safety for thedevelopment of the aforementioned strains for oncolytic virotherapy inhumans.

Example 6

Susceptibility of human cancer types to RR mutant oncolytic poxvirusesand use in oncolytic viral therapy. The ΔF4L and/or Y300F F4-expressingstrains are used as a component of combined therapy, where patients arefirst treated with HU (or gemcitabine), followed by treatment with oneof these oncolytic VACV strains to target remaining drug-resistant tumortissue. First, breast tumor tissue, for example, from a patient biopsyis pre-screened to determine if the tumor tissue will respond well tooncolytic treatment using the ΔF4L and/or Y300F F4-expressing vacciniastrains. Cellular RR expression in the breast tumor tissue sample isthen detected and compared to the cellular RR expression levels innormal breast tissue using rapid RT-PCR and automated quantitativeanalysis. Alternatively, cellular RR expression in tissue samples can bedetermined by detecting RR protein levels using, for example, westernblots, and/or detecting RR subunit transcripts using for example RT-PCR.If the cellular RR expression of the tumor tissue sample is found to beelevated compared to the normal tissue, the patient is a good candidatefor the combined therapy described above that includes oncolyticvirotherapy using the ΔF4L and/or Y300F F4-expressing vaccinia strains.

A person skilled in the art will understand that this combined therapyis effective on a broad range of human cancer types, including, cancerswith increased RR cellular levels expression.

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The invention claimed is:
 1. A method for inducing cell death in a neoplastic disorder cell, the method comprising: contacting said cell with an effective amount of a vaccinia virus comprising a gene encoding a modified R2 protein comprising an amino acid sequence at least 90% identical to the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 1, wherein vaccinia virus does not express a wild type R2 protein; and wherein the modified R2 protein expressed by the vaccinia virus comprises a substitution of a tyrosine residue, wherein the substituted tyrosine residue corresponds to position 300 of SEQ ID NO: 1, or wherein the modified R2 protein expressed by the vaccinia virus comprises a deletion of 7 amino acids of R1 binding domain (R1BD); and wherein said contacting is effective to induce cell death in the neoplastic disorder cell, wherein the neoplastic disorder cell expresses ribonucleotide reductase.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the neoplastic disorder cell is cancer cell selected from breast cancer cell, colorectal cancer cell, hepatic cancer cell, pancreatic cancer cell, skin cancer cell, lung cancer cell, esophageal cancer cell, leukemia cell, ovarian cancer cell, head and neck cancer cell, glioma cell, and gastric cancer cell.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein the modified R2 protein expressed by the vaccinia virus comprises a substitution of a tyrosine residue, wherein the substituted tyrosine residue corresponds to position 300 of SEQ ID NO:
 1. 4. The method of claim 3, wherein the modified R2 protein comprises an amino acid sequence at least 95% identical to the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO:
 1. 5. The method of claim 3, wherein the tyrosine residue is substituted with phenylalanine.
 6. The method of claim 1, wherein the modified R2 protein comprises the deletion of 7 amino acids of the R1BD.
 7. The method of claim 6, wherein the modified R2 protein comprises an amino acid sequence at least 95% identical to the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO:
 1. 8. The method of claim 1, wherein the vaccinia virus further comprises a functionally inactivated thymidine kinase gene.
 9. The method of claim 1, wherein the vaccinia virus further comprises a functionally inactivated R1 gene.
 10. The method of claim 1, wherein the vaccinia virus further comprises a functionally inactivated vaccinia virus growth factor gene or a functionally inactivated nucleotide metabolism-related gene.
 11. A method for treating a neoplastic disorder in a subject, the method comprising: administering an effective amount of a vaccinia virus to the subject, the vaccinia virus comprising a gene encoding a modified R2 protein comprising an amino acid sequence at least 90% identical to the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 1, wherein the vaccinia virus does not express a wild type R2 protein; and wherein the modified R2 protein expressed by the vaccinia virus comprises a substitution of a tyrosine residue, wherein the substituted tyrosine residue corresponds to position 300 of SEQ ID NO: 1, or wherein the modified R2 protein expressed by the vaccinia virus comprises a deletion of 7 amino acids of R1 binding domain (R1BD), wherein the neoplastic disorder comprises neoplastic disorder cells expressing ribonucleotide reductase and wherein the administering is effective to induce cell death in the neoplastic disorder cells.
 12. The method of claim 11, wherein the neoplastic disorder is a cancer selected from breast cancer, colorectal cancer, hepatic cancer, pancreatic cancer, skin cancer, lung cancer, esophageal cancer, leukemia, ovarian cancer, head and neck cancer, gliomas, and gastric cancer.
 13. The method of claim 11, wherein the modified R2 protein expressed by the vaccinia virus comprises a substitution of a tyrosine residue, wherein the substituted tyrosine residue corresponds to position 300 of SEQ ID NO:
 1. 14. The method of claim 13, wherein the modified R2 protein comprises an amino acid sequence at least 95% identical to the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO:
 1. 15. The method of claim 13, wherein the tyrosine residue is substituted with phenylalanine.
 16. The method of claim 11, wherein the modified R2 protein comprises the deletion of 7 amino acids of the R1BD.
 17. The method of claim 16, wherein the modified R2 protein comprises an amino acid sequence at least 95% identical to the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO:
 1. 18. The method of claim 11, wherein the vaccinia virus further comprises a functionally inactivated thymidine kinase gene.
 19. The method of claim 11, wherein the vaccinia virus further comprises a functionally inactivated R1 gene.
 20. The method of claim 11, wherein the vaccinia virus further comprises a functionally inactivated vaccinia virus growth factor gene or a functionally inactivated nucleotide metabolism-related gene. 